Search Results:

Viewing Record 1 of 160 >>
View : Light Box | List View | Image List | Detailed
 


Maker(s):Millet, Jean François
Culture:French (1814-1875)
Title:Peasant Woman Raking
Date Made:ca. 1855-1860
Type:Painting
Materials:oil on panel
Measurements:Panel: 13 1/8 in x 10 3/16 in; 33.3 cm x 25.9 cm
Accession Number:  AC 1942.86
Credit Line:Gift of Mrs. John Simpson and Miss Jean W. Simpson
Museum Collection:  Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
1942_86.jpg

Label Text:
Renowned peasant painter Jean François Millet painted "Peasant Woman Raking" in about 1860, after earning notoriety in 1850 with his "Sower" (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and in 1857 with his "Gleaners" (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), which conservative viewers interpreted as a critique of the Second Empire’s prosperity. "Peasant Woman Raking" is the second small painting Millet executed after one of ten rustic figures he published in 1853 in the Parisian journal "L’Illustration" (the related variant of which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Millet’s notoriety brought few financial rewards, and over the decade following his move to the village of Barbizon in 1849, he made his living by selling small pictures such as this one. These show women and men engaged in outdoor labor and domestic chores and constitute a celebration of the new “common man.” Van Gogh made several paintings after Millet’s 1853 prints (including Peasant Woman Raking), one indication of the enduring strength of the French painter’s conception of the dignity of peasant life.

Written by Robert Herbert, Professor Emeritus of Humanities, Mount Holyoke College

Tags:
women; domestic space; farm equipment; farmers; workers; environment; landscapes

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1942.86

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

Viewing Record 1 of 160 >>