The Knitting Lesson

Artist Wilhelm Funk (1886 - 1949)

Date1903

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions84.2 x 63.5 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by Wilhelm Funk (the Artist), 1908.

Object number303

DescriptionWilhelm Funk was born in Hanover, Germany on 14th January 1866. He initially studied at the Royal Academy in Munich and subsequently moved to the United States in 1885 where he set up a studio as a portrait painter. There he continued his studies at the Art Students League in New York City. He worked for a time as a pen-and-ink illustrator for the New York Herald and such magazines as Scribner's, Harper's and Century. He also spent some time in California from 1909-10 where he painted portraits in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Carmel. During the 1920s he was active in New York City. In 1903 the artist returned to Europe where he painted this work of two Breton girls. They are wearing the distinctive while headdress or ailes while the little girl is wearing the local clogs or sabots. Images of rural figures in a home setting such as this were painted by a large number of artists at the turn of the century. This painting was presented by the artist to Hugh Lane's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in 1908.

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