Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75) was born in Normandy to a family of farm workers, and his first experience of work was alongside his peasant father in the fields. However, he sought to better himself and at the age of 18 he began to study painting, first in Cherbourg and then in Paris.
His early works were influenced by the subject matter of his
Paris tutor Paul Delaroche, and therefore featured historical scenes as well as
several portraits. However, none of these early works attracted much attention.
In 1848 he discovered his true metier by exhibiting “The
Winnower”, after he which he moved to Fontainebleau and produced the series of
scenes of rural life on which his reputation rests. He was inspired in part by
the artist Honore Daumier, who produced unsentimental paintings of the urban
and rural poor, but his childhood memories provided the greater inspiration.
Although Millet’s work was admired by his fellow artists he
did not receive popular acclaim until 1867, when nine of his paintings were
exhibited at the Paris Exposition Universelle. He therefore spent most of his life
in extreme poverty.
The Gleaners
The Gleaners was painted in 1857 and is currently on view at
the Louvre, Paris. It shows harvest time in a French field, with the official
harvest being collected in the background – complete with the farmer keeping an
eye on proceedings on horseback – but the main focus is on three women who are
working hard at gleaning, which is the secondary harvest of picking up the few
grains and stalks that the farm employees have missed.
Gleaning is a process that has been going on since ancient times
– for example, the Old Testament Book of Ruth features gleaning as the means
whereby Ruth meets Boaz, whom she later marries. However, gleaning is not
something that anyone would do unless they were absolutely desperate to find
enough food to live on. It is the equivalent of the modern practice by homeless
people of looking in the bins at the rear of supermarkets to find any “out of
date” food that cannot be sold.
Millet is therefore showing us a scene of extreme rural
poverty, and it is clear from the posture of the three women that this is back-breaking
work. Two of the women are bent over at the waist with one of them placing a hand
on the small of her back as if to try to relieve her backache. The third woman
is rising stiffly with a hand on her knee, thus indicating that she is feeling
a degree of pain. It is clear from the fact that one of the women is carrying a
nearly full bag that they have been at work for a long time, and there is
nothing to suggest that they will finish any time soon.
As a composition, The Gleaners shows Millet to be a master of his art. The three women are shown in different stages of the gleaning process – as mentioned above, one of them is trying to stand up, but the other two are doing slightly different things with one of them in the act of picking up a grain while the other reaches out for one. There is therefore a sense of movement conveyed by the composition – we can expect the women to be in different position at any moment.
Millet manages to convey a sense of distance in this
painting. This he does partly by showing the background harvesters as being recognisable
for what they are but far enough away to be featureless. A sense of space is
also conveyed by the steady change in colour of the wheat field from dark brown
in the foreground, at the gleaners’ feet, to progressively lighter as the field
stretches away behind them. The harvesters and their sacks of grain appear
almost white in the distance. This could be seen as emphasising the social distance
between the gleaners and the harvesters.
Another contrast can be seen in the fact that several
massive straw stacks can be seen in both the near and far distance, stretching
away to the horizon. This has clearly been an excellent harvest, with which the
farmer on his horse with no doubt be delighted. The plight of the gleaners, who
are literally scratching a living from the harvest leftovers, is therefore even
more poignant.
However, questions remain over the message that Millet is
trying to get across. Is he making a pointed social comment, or is the harmony
of the scene, with the gleaners busily getting on with their work undisturbed
by any distractions, simply celebrating their way of life and glamourising
poverty?
Great works of art are open to various interpretations,
depending on what the viewer is prepared to see in them. The Gleaners is surely
a case in point – the three women would not have to do this work in a more
equal social structure, but should they be ignored simply because they have
been forced into extreme poverty? Is this painting saying that the status quo
is to be admired or condemned? That is surely for the viewer to make his or her
own judgment about.
© John Welford
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