Art Collage JANG: Interesting Art Stories: 59. The Gleaners, Jean-François Millet, ACJ Art Academy

How are you?

Currently, I am introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.

The 59th story is “The Gleaners” by Jean-François Millet.

“The Gleaners” is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet, completed in 1857.

Self-Portrait, Jean-François Millet
(c.1840-1841)

The painting, depicting three peasant women gleaning in a wheat field after the harvest, is famous for its sympathetic portrayal of the lowest classes of rural society at the time, and therefore it was received poorly among the French upper classes.

Before the painting, a vertical painting of the image was first made in 1854 and an etching in 1855. Millet exhibited the painting at the Paris Salon in 1857, which immediately received negative criticism from the middle and upper classes, who viewed its subject with suspicion.

Etching of The Gleaners, 1855

Having come out of the French Revolution of 1848, these wealthy classes saw the painting as glorifying the lower classes. The depiction of the working class in the painting destabilized the upper class because it meant that the upper class would be overthrown if the lower class, much outnumbered by the upper class, were to revolt. At that time, the French Revolution was still vivid in the minds of the upper class, so the painting was not perceived well.

The painting was also criticized for its large size of 84 x 112 centimeters. At the time, the painting was too large for a painting depicting labor, because the canvas of the size was usually used for the painting for religious or mythological themes.

Although gleaning was not a new subject for the painting, Millet’s work was a candid statement of rural poverty, and not biblical piety. There is only a contrast between the poverty symbolized by the peasant women gleaning in the foreground and the richness of the abundant harvest in the sun shining beyond, and the biblical sense of community and compassion doesn't exist at all.

After the Salon, the poor Millet negotiated with an Englishman named Binder, and sold the painting for 3,000 francs, much lower than his asking price of 4,000 francs, and Millet tried to keep the miserable price a secret.

Although “The Gleaners” received almost bad reviews during his life, public appreciation of his work steadily broadened after his death in 1875. In 1889, the painting, then owned by banker Ferdinand Bischoffsheim, was sold for 300,000 francs at auction. Less than a week later, it was announced that Champagne maker Jeanne-Alexandrine Louise Pommery had taken over the painting.

Jeanne-Alexandrine Louise Pommery

Upon the death of Madame Pommery in 1891, and following her will, the painting was donated to the Louvre. It is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Musée d'Orsay

“The Gleaners” is one of Millet's most famous paintings. The image of women bending and gleaning was often paraphrased in works of artists such as Pissarro, Renoir, Seurat, and van Gogh. Also influenced by the painting were Honoré Daumier and Edgar Degas’ "Laundresses" and Gustave Caillebotte’s "The Floor Scrapers".

The Laundress, Honoré Daumier (c.1863)

The Laundresses, Edgar Degas (c.1874-76)

The Floor Scrapers, Gustave Caillebotte (1875)

The painting provides evidence of Millet's role as a social critic. The depiction of three bending, gleaning poor women, in contrast to the workers and abundant crops in the background of the painting, demonstrates his concern for the poorest people around Barbizon and its neighbor, Chailly.

Studies tracing the transformation of rural France in the nineteenth century show that little change in peasant life occurred beyond northern France and Paris until the last quarter of the century. Thus, Millet's expression to represent class strife on a large farm in the paintings, were quite unique and modern considering the 1850s.

The painting inspired the 2000 film “The Gleaners and I” directed by Agnes Varda.