The Gleaners

A dry field after the harvest. Three women bend deep at the waist, gathering leftover ears of wheat. A peaceful landscape depicting idyllic rural life—or so it is often thought. In reality, however, this is a depiction of the struggle for survival among the destitute. And it stands as the ultimate expression of a painter holding fast to his convictions.

In the early 1850s, Jean-François Millet began conceiving the work in his cramped studio in Barbizon. At the time, he was supporting his wife, Catherine Lemaire, and a houseful of children. Living in extreme poverty, he spent his days hounded by the costs of food and art supplies, all while suffering from chronic eye trouble and severe headaches. Yet, with no commission from anyone, he pressed on with painting it on his own initiative. It took him nearly five years to complete.

The setting is the Plain of Chailly. Born into a peasant family in Normandy, Millet walked this plain on a daily basis. Rural France was then undergoing a transition to large-scale farm management, which led to a rapid increase in impoverished, landless workers. "Gleaning"—collecting leftover grain—was a right granted to widows and the poor so they could survive. It was, quite literally, an act of survival.

In 1857, the painting was unveiled at the Paris Salon. Conservative critics condemned it harshly. "The Three Fates of poverty," they sneered. "The shadows of popular uprisings and the guillotine loom behind them." It was viewed with deep suspicion as socialist propaganda.