This etching and engraving is by Juste Chevillet (1729-1790) a German printmaker active in France and Rome. It is one of a pair he produced in 1762 after paintings by the Swiss artist, Johann Caspar Heilmann of his sister. The name and address of the publisher, La Veuve Chereau, is printed below the image. The titles of the prints are Melle sa Soeur (Mademoiselle his Sister) and Le Bon Exemple (the Good Example), referred to in some literature as La Fileuse (the Spinner) and La Couturière (the Seamstress). Both prints were advertised for sale in the French literary journal Mercure de France and were the most successful of Chevillet’s output. Marie Christine, Archduchess of Austria, sister of Marie Antoinette and an accomplished amateur artist, made a self portrait using the print Melle sa Soeur as a model, in about 1765. This shows her in an identical pose with a spinning wheel on her lap.

This print shows a typical activity of a gentlewoman of this period. The young woman is shown using a silk-winder or spinning wheel. She is in the process of twisting fine fibres, probably silk but possibly flax, into thread. She wears a heavy apron to protect her clothes. The thread that she is making would have been used for embroidery and creating decorative details on garments. Not only was silk-winding considered a useful, practical skill, it also drew attention to elegant hands and could consequently become a valuable asset in flirtation and courtship. As is demonstrated by the self-portrait of the Archduchess this occupation was considered an acceptable and virtuous occupation for women of noble rank.