The pious painter of peasant life
A record of rural life – Jean-François Millet’s The Angelus 1857-59 (left); The Wood Sawyers 1850-52 (right)
Musée D'orsay/V&A Images /Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Although the landscapes he rendered are beautiful, the harshness of rural life is ever-present
On the ground floor of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris hangs an oil painting that was commissioned but never collected. It depicts two potato harvesters bowing their heads in prayer as the sun begins to set on the land they work. Today, The Angelus by Jean-François Millet (1814-75) is far from dejected. Earlier this year, shortly after the 150th anniversary of Millet’s death, I joined a crowd of other visitors to admire it, clutching a pictorial guide to the museum’s highlights, which places the moving painting first in its list of extraordinary treasures.
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