Trades Of Yesterday / Dated 1896 / Wheelworker's Workshop / Oil On Canvas

This oil on canvas, dated 1896 and signed B. Madrières lower right, depicts a wheelwright's workshop, a crucial trade in the era before the rise of motorized vehicles. It shows three craftsmen working on the manufacture and repair of wooden wheels, typical of animal-drawn carts. The first adjusts a wheel, the second forges metal parts, and the third heats metal in a forge to hoop it around the wheels. Wheelwrighting, essential to land transportation before industrialization, consisted of assembling wooden wheels and vehicles, reinforced with metal hoops. This painting demonstrates the importance of this trade at the end of the 19th century, when mechanization was beginning to take over. The wooden workshop, the artisanal tools, and the craftsmen at work illustrate an ancient know-how, in decline with the industrial revolution.

38 x 46 without frame
54 x 612 with frame solid wood frame.

The painting, in very good condition, on its original canvas and frame, was cleaned and restored in our workshops (small consolidation in the center).