The sock knitter

Grace Cossington Smith's 1915 painting The Sock Knitter is a pioneering work in Post-impressionism and holds significance as the first such painting exhibited in Australia. Depicting a woman, likely her sister, engrossed in genre painting, the figure is depicted pressed forward onto the canvas in a tightly constructed composition. The creamy impasto oil paint creates a textured background that, along with echoing triangles and the figure's form, holds the piece together like a jigsaw. The work emphasizes the figure as a pattern maker, blending domestic subject matter with a forward-looking, modernist style.