The Gleaners (Des glaneuses)
Oil painting on canvas • Jean-François Millet
Style & Movement
Realism
Medium & Technique
Oil on canvas, employing traditional academic realism techniques with naturalistic lighting and textured brushwork to render figures and landscape
Creation Period
1857
Dimensions & Format
83.5 cm x 111 cm (32.9 in x 43.7 in), horizontal landscape format
Subject Description
Three peasant women bending low to glean leftover stalks of wheat in a harvested field after the main harvest. The composition emphasizes the backbreaking labor of the rural poor, with the warm afternoon sun casting soft light across the flat landscape and distant haystacks.
Condition & Value Assessment
Condition Assessment
Not applicable to the original masterpiece (housed in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris); the provided image is a reproduction sticker on a calendar page showing good print clarity.
Estimated Market Value
Museum piece; priceless / not for sale
Auction Estimate
Museum piece; not applicable for commercial auction
Provenance History
Originally acquired by an art collector, exhibited widely, entered the collection of the Musée du Louvre, and later transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Art Historical Significance
One of the most famous works of the Realism movement, known for its sympathetic and monumental portrayal of agricultural laborers, which initially shocked the Parisian bourgeoisie due to its serious elevation of the rural poor.
Notable Features
The monumental dignity given to ordinary peasant women, monumentalizing labor in a manner previously reserved for history painting.
Condition Issues
None visible on the physical calendar sticker reproduction; the original painting is maintained under museum-grade conservation standards.
Conservation Recommendations
Standard archival storage for the calendar page; for the original painting, strict climate control and UV-filtered lighting in the Musée d'Orsay.