Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939)

While Frederick Carl Frieseke is admired for his beautiful images of women, it is his paintings of his daughter Frances that offers an intimate glimpse into the artist's life. Child Knitting is a tender portrait of the young girl in the garden of their Normandy home. She contently sits knitting, enveloped by the lush grass. Attention is given to the balloon pattern on her dress and the texture of the lawn with dappled sunlight, but it is the pink yarn which becomes the centerpiece as the viewer's gaze is drawn to her busy hands and follows the bottom of the image. Child Knitting is both playful and decorative. His use of soft pastel colors and broad, sweeping brushstrokes emphasize the loving relationship the artist has to his subject and captures the mood of a light hearted summer's day.