Together with Gustav Courbet, Millet was one of the figureheads of the Realist movement in France. Their large-scale pictures of peasants provided an unsentimental view of the hardships of rural life, and these remained highly controversial throughout 1850, as memories of the 1848 revolution were still relatively fresh. Many conservative critics regarded them as politically motivated, particularly in view of the controversial nature of Napoleon III’s rule. Gleaners were the poorest of all peasants. They were authorized to collect the scraps left behind after a harvest. Here, the pickings seem very thin. Millet makes a pointed contrast between the meagre stubble of corn on the ground and the heavily-laden carts in the distance. On reviewer memorably described the women as “The Three Fates of Poverty, sarcrows and rags.
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Dinesh said:
Dinesh said: