Analysis on "The Gleaners" by Jean-Francois Millet

Millet, Jean-Francois. The Gleaners. 1857. Oil on canvas. Musée D'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

 

This painting, The Gleaners, by Jean-François Millet, depicts three peasant woman gleaning, or gathering the leftover grains after the reapers. The painting is incredibly realistic, as Millet’s goal was not to idealize their situation, but to show it as it actually was (The Gleaners). The painting was not well received in France, since it made the upper class feel “uneasy about their status” (The Gleaners). It was received with heavy criticism and negative emotions, including suspicion. Of course, Millet revealed this work right after the French Revolution, which was a time of uneasiness and disturbance between the social classes and order. As history usually goes, those things that address a social tension do not fare so well, and was no different for The Gleaners.

                What is most striking about this painting is in fact the composition and subject matter. Rarely ever were the common people or laborers or farmers painted with such care and detail. As is obvious, the women are the main focus of the work. They are left alone to do their work, even though there is a man on a horse on the right side, who is assumedly the landowner (The Gleaners). In the background, we also see the piles of hay, while the women are left to pick up the remains. This is not just a day-on-the-job sort of painting. Millet is trying to show that not only do the gleaners pick up the remains of the other workers, but that those in poverty (the laborers, the peasants, the farmers, etc.) pick up the remains of the wealthy. Another interesting choice of composition that Millet chose to do is the observation that none of the women break the horizon line. They are bent down below it, as if they are forced below it. According to Wikipedia, Millet believed that those born a peasant would stay a peasant (The Gleaners). Further down in the article it reads that the composition “aligns with the social structure that what you are born into is what you stay” (The Gleaners).

                While the women may not have been farmers, they were agricultural laborers. The reason I wanted to analyze this particular painting is because I wanted to show that farming and other agricultural labor is not always glamourous. I wanted to show the social injustice that was (and often still is) forced on this type of work and labor.

 

N.a. "The Gleaners." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Mar. 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.