Les glaneuses (The Gleaners)
Artist/Culture
Jean François Millet
(French, 1814–1875)
Date19th century
Mediumetching on cream laid paper
Dimensions19 x 25.2 cm (7 1/2 x 9 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPrints
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Robert M. Heberton from the Edward A. Bigelow Collection
Terms
Object number1981.225
Label TextIn 1849, Millet permanently relocated to Barbizon from Paris. There, he not only painted the forest, but the surrounding fields populated with peasants, whose backbreaking labor is shown with a realism deemed overtly political when his paintings were displayed at the Salon in Paris. Millet began sketching gleaners—impoverished women who picked up stray pieces of grain after a harvest—near the beginning of his time in Barbizon, a theme that culminated in 1857 with the completion of an oil painting, The Gleaners, now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The composition of this etching—one of many created during the 1850s—is nearly identical to the final painted version.
While the careful, years-long process of determining a final composition is far removed from later impressionist spontaneity, Millet’s etching is early evidence of the 19th century’s “etching revival.” This artistic trend reasserted etching as a medium for an original work of art, as opposed to a reproduction of a painting. The etching revival included many impressionist and other avant-garde artists of the 19th century, notably James McNeill Whistler, Mary Cassatt, and Childe Hassam.ProvenanceThe Edward A. Bigelow collection, gift of Mrs. Robert M. Heberton, Chatham, MA, July 20, 1981On View
Not on view
