Verbal Description: Girl at a Sewing Machine, c. 1921

Narrator: Girl at a Sewing Machine, oil on canvas, 19 by 18 inches. The oil painting Girl at Sewing Machine, painted in 1921, is a quiet depiction of domestic labor. A young woman is bent over a sewing station positioned in the corner of an interior. The room is dim with high ceilings and a rust colored wall. The seated figure faces the floor length window on the right, the sunny blue sky the only source of light to work by. Warm rays of light cascade at a downward angle, indicating late morning or mid-afternoon. She sits beneath the window, nearly in the center of the composition. Her body and face are seen only in profile. Her figure is soft and plump. Her head is bowed, looking down at her hands, absorbed in her work. A mass of straight, chestnut colored hair covers her shoulders and face; only the tip of her nose is visible. Her warm, pale skin against her cool ivory colored sleeveless dress is almost illuminated. Her unruly hair and scant clothing give the impression that she has not begun to dress for the day. The garment she is attending to is a creamy heap of fabric placed atop the sewing station. 

There are very few personal effects in the room. She sits on a dark wooden chair with a high back and simple frame. The bottom left corner of the composition appears to be a bundle of fabric, which could be either blankets on her bed or perhaps another garment to sew. Just behind the figure to the left is a vanity in a dark wood. A small picture hangs on the dingy orange wall with no discernable imagery.