=Questions to arouse interest.= Of what is this a picture? What are the
three women doing in the field? What have they in their hands? Of what
use are their aprons? Why do you think their work is hard? Why do you
think they are used to it? How are they dressed? What story is told in
the background? What do you suppose the man on horseback is doing? What
can you see beyond the people? What time of the year is it? Is it a dark
or a sunshiny day? Why do you think so? What time of day do you think it
is? What country? Why do you think so? What do you like best about this
picture?
=Original Picture=: The Louvre (lōō′vr’), Paris.
=Artist=: Jean François Millet (mē′lē′)
=Birthplace=: Gruchy, France.
=Dates=: Born, 1814; died, 1875.
=The story of the picture.= In this picture Millet takes us out into the
country, to the wheat fields. The reapers have passed over the field,
cutting down the wheat with a small sickle. Although we cannot see them
in the act of cutting, we know they used a sickle in those days by other
pictures Millet has painted. There is one called “The Reaper” which
represents a man grasping the tall stalks of wheat with one hand and
cutting them close to the ground with a small sickle.
Years later reapers used a “cradle,” which is a frame of wood with a
long, sharp blade or knife fastened to a handle similar to a scythe
handle. This frame caught the stalks of wheat as they were cut. Then by
a swing of the arm they were laid in an even row. Then the rows were
raked into bundles and the wheat tied into sheaves. All this was done by
hand. Now we do it easily with a machine called a reaper, which cuts the
wheat, binds it in a sheaf, and then throws off the bundles.
The man you see on horseback, in the distance at the right, is the
overseer of this field. His sharp eyes have discovered that many stalks
of wheat have been left on the ground, and so he has sent the women to
gather them that there may be no waste.
In the background of the picture we see other women at the same task,
and men busily piling the wheat from the wagon into high stacks. Farther
back, and partly hidden behind the wheat stacks, we see several cottages
which may be the homes of the peasants or barns in which to store the
grain.
We should judge by the shadows that it is late in the afternoon and all
are hurrying to finish their task. Our attention is held by the three
stooping figures of the women gleaning or gathering the wheat. They have
caught up the corners of their aprons and tied them in a tight knot at
the back, making a sort of bag in which to place the broken heads of
wheat, while their hands are filled with the stalks. The three women
seem absorbed in their task. How very tiresome it would be to stoop in
such a fashion for any length of time! No wonder the woman at the right
straightens up for a moment to rest her back. The other two are stooping
to pick up the grain. One of them holds her left hand behind her back.
If you take this position yourself, you will understand how natural it
is to balance yourself with the left arm as she does. The women’s caps
are drawn so far down that we can see but little of their faces in the
shadow. But the coarse clothes, bent backs, and hands roughened with
toil represent the typical French peasant women of the artist’s time.
Millet tells us in a letter to a friend: “I want the people I represent
to look as if they belonged to their station, and as if their
imaginations could not conceive of their ever being anything else.” How
truly he has accomplished this in our picture! The women seem to be
working cheerfully without complaint or regret. They do not ask for
sympathy but attend strictly to their work.
With so many other laborers in the field, and considering their task, we
scarcely dare think of the miserably small pay they must receive for
their labor. We wonder how they can live. And yet they have a certain
wholesome, thrifty appearance—their clothes, although coarse, are not
ragged; they look well and strong, and they work with an energy which
would imply a certain satisfaction in their task well done.
There are no lingering looks toward the sun—their clock—or toward the
distant homes, or even toward the other laborers whose tasks seem nearer
completion. They are resigned. But even at best their life must be hard,
and whether they ask it or not, they stir our sympathies even as they
did those of the people of France when the picture was finally placed on
exhibition in Paris.
The peasants of France were especially wretched after the French
Revolution, and this picture appeared just at a time when people needed
to be reminded of this condition of affairs. But many preferred not to
be reminded, and they so resented Millet’s efforts to better the life of
the French peasant that they were bitter against him for many years.
Millet was the son of a French peasant and worked out in the fields
himself, so he knew all about the hardships, poverty, and wretchedness,
and painted the truth as he saw it.
In the original painting there is a suggestion of red and blue in the
dresses of the women, a blue-gray sky, and over it all the sun shining
dimly. The coarse dresses of the women were no doubt woven by them
during the winter days when there was no farm work to do.
Millet tells us that one of his earliest remembrances is of being
wakened early in the morning by the hum of the spinning wheel and the
voices of his mother and aunts as they spun the thread of flax ready to
weave into cloth.
Notice the arrangement of the three women in the picture. They are not
in a straight row, or one right behind the other, or even scattered
about in the picture. Two are near each other, while the third is just a
little to one side; in this way the center of interest is made more
pleasing to the eye. If we make an outline sketch of these three figures
we will be surprised at the number of curved lines it requires.
The sky line is very high in this picture, so the earth space is large
enough to contain the figures of the three women. In this way they seem
to be bound closer to the earth. We feel their lowliness, and the burden
of the life they lead in their narrow surroundings.
Yet, although we feel all these things when looking at this picture of
work, it is a picture of work done simply and good-naturedly and as if
it were only a part of the daily task, a sort of habit of life.
=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= How was wheat cut
in Millet’s day? How is it cut now? Of what use is a reaper? What are
the three women in the picture doing? Who sent them? Why? Where do they
put the broken heads of wheat? the stalks? Why do you think this must be
hard work? Which one is resting her back? Why does one of the others
hold her left hand behind her? How are these three women dressed? How do
peasants usually get material for their clothes? Whom can you see in the
background? What are they doing? What can you see behind them? What time
of day do you think it is? How can you tell by the length of the
shadows? To what part of the picture is our attention drawn? What makes
you think these women are working cheerfully? that they are thrifty?
What reasons have they to be discontented? to be contented? Why do you
feel sorry for them? How did the people of France feel when this picture
was exhibited? What had made the French peasants very wretched at this
time? Why did the people resent Millet’s calling their attention to
this? How did Millet happen to know so much about the peasants and their
life? What colors did he use in this picture? What can you say about the
arrangement of the three women in this picture? Why is this a good
arrangement? How are we made to feel the lowliness of these peasants?
Why is this picture called “The Gleaners”?
=To the Teacher:=