Lyonnais Canut Workshop

This engraving depicts the interior of a Lyonnais canut workshop, that is, the workplace and home of a silk weaver operating a loom. Published in 1877 under the title _La crise lyonnaise. Intérieur d’un tisseur en soie. D’après nature_, it shows the material conditions of a trade closely tied to Lyon’s urban economy. The canuts played a central role in silk production, but their work was shaped by dependence on merchants, fluctuations in orders, and the social tensions of the nineteenth century. The scene therefore illustrates both a specialised textile craft and the everyday reality of a Lyonnais working world that became emblematic of the early social question in France.