The Gleaners

Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1857, Jean-François Millet's monumental canvas depicts three peasant women stooping to gather ears of wheat left after the harvest on a vast plain near Barbizon. By treating the humble, even marginal task of gleaning with the solemnity of a history painting, Millet scandalised the bourgeois public and triggered fierce debate over whether the image carried a socialist message. The work is a landmark of French Realism and the defining image of 19th-century rural labour.

Exhibition Venue

Musée d'Orsay

Paris, France