Talk:Tricoteuse

Tricot

I understand that at the time of the French Revolution, the tricoteuses would have been doing tricot, which is a form of crochet using a single Tunisian (or Afghan) hook. It creates a flat piece of fabric. I also understand that certain popular historical paintings of tricoteuses, created in the 19th century, erroneously showed them doing the three-needle knitting of tubular stockings which was a common 19th century form of knitting. This error was exacerbated by the mistaken assumption that the "tri" part of the name "tricoteuse" related to three needles. I would like to add this information to the article, but have no citation for it as yet.--Storye book (talk) 15:42, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

The picture depicting a tricoteuse has a descriptive title. Any artist could tell you that. There is nothing ironic about the picture. Irony is a juxtaposition of facts that become ironic in the context that they are used. This picture is of a common artistic theme used during this period. Workers or Street People, or people relaxing recorded at their labors or their refreshment from labor. Examples are the flower girl, dancers in The Moulin Rouge, men in the pub raising a mug of brew, people picnicing in the park next to the lake. This is a comment I'm not sure how else to make contact to make this point. Sorry if I have used the wrong —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.165.180.157 (talk) 11:51, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

That's a good point. I too had wondered about that caption: the painter Bouguereau had no apparent sense of irony in any of his other work, and it seems wrong to attribute it here. I'm going to reduce the caption to the basic information now. SteveStrummer (talk) 19:39, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Beside the Guillotine?

The article says, without citing any authority,

The term is most often used in its historical sense as a nickname for the women who sat beside the guillotine during public executions in Paris in the French Revolution, supposedly continuing to knit in between executions.

I've never seen a tricoteuse depicted next to the guillotine: as far as I know they're most often shown in the courtrooms where people were condemned to the guillotine, and sometimes shown crying, "Guillotine!" and cackling wildly. The pictures accompanying the article certainly don't show a tricoteuse sitting beside a guillotine. Can anybody substantiate the article's present statement with a reliable source, or else correct it? J. D. Crutchfield | Talk 14:50, 26 March 2015 (UTC)