The Gleaners

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Jean-Francois Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
The realist painter Jean-François Millet honorably glorifies peasant life in The Gleaners (1857). Three women, beautifully depicted with oddly soft, muted colors, scavenge the field in order to pickup remaining wheat missed by the reaping. The women represent the rural working-class. They are so impoverished that they must glean or go hungry. Gleaning comes from ancient Hebrew traditions. In Leviticus 19, God says, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger.” Protected by the word of God, the women carefully collect small bundles of wheat.

The women happen to stand in age order, youngest to oldest from left to right. The eldest woman, perhaps from years of gleaning, can barely bend down to gather wheat for her bundle. Next to her stands a solidly built woman with a square figure and broad back, capable of bearing heavy burdens. The youngest woman seems to work effortlessly and has a fluid, girlish form. The austerity of their backbreaking work contrasts with the plentiful harvest in the distance. The women meticulously glean the field and seem to live in a world completely separate from the one behind them. Without Millet, the existence of these peasants would go unnoticed. 


Millet does not fear the peasantry like other upper-class citizens in his time. He paints these workers in a glorifying light in order for the audience to more easily identify with them. The angled light of the setting sun accentuates the foreground and gives the gleaners a sculptural look. The light emphasizes their necks, shoulders, backs, and hands and adds vibrancy to the colors of their clothing. Millet proposes the viewers to consider the gleaner’s vantage point.

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