The Sower By Jean Francois Millet
The Inspiration of Millet
"It is the treating of the commonplace with the feeling of the sublime that gives art its true power." ––Jean-Francois Millet. A humble peasant man, Jean-Francois Millet was an artist who, although perhaps unknown to himself, was to strongly influence French art, and French history as a whole. Millet's humble background led him to paint pieces, such as The Sower, which would change mankind's view of poor citizens and agricultural laborers, allowing these men, and their work, be seen through the lens of realism. It is the purpose of this essay to exhibit this truth through the succeeding paragraphs of life, The Sower, and symbolization. When Jean-Francois Millet was born on October 4th of the year 1814, he did …show more content…
When one views the 1850 version of The Sower, for Millet created at least three seperate editions of this peice, one beholds a field of tilled dirt, waiting for planting, which stretches off into the background and meets a blue sky in which swirls of dust float on the breeze. The scene is rendered at sunrise, for strip of mild pink is visible on the horizon. In the background, disappearing over a low hilltop, a man is barely visible hauling two hay bails resting on a wagon of sorts. Striding down the hill above mentioned, the sower for whom the piece is named, labors at his daily work. Wearing thick blue pants, a loose, rust-colored shirt, dusty, knee-high boots, and a dark hat with the brim pulled so low that his face is overshadowed, but a few of this man's thoughts and emotions can be surmised from his appearance alone. Yet one can observe that he is working briskly and seriously at his task: A sack of seeds is tied across his torso, and his hand is outstretched, dropping seeds along the ground as he walks. This man, the sower, seems rather too large for the piece, yet upon examination, one must credit this oddity to the fact that not much landscape is visible around him; much like in a portrait, the peasant himself is the centerpice of the scene. Yet in comparison to the wee man in the background, the sower is nevertheless gargantuan, for his hat-clad head is the same size as the reaper, and his wagon and hay bails combined, and the elbow of his oustretched arm is about even with the brow of the hill in the
"It is the treating of the commonplace with the feeling of the sublime that gives art its true power." ––Jean-Francois Millet. A humble peasant man, Jean-Francois Millet was an artist who, although perhaps unknown to himself, was to strongly influence French art, and French history as a whole. Millet's humble background led him to paint pieces, such as The Sower, which would change mankind's view of poor citizens and agricultural laborers, allowing these men, and their work, be seen through the lens of realism. It is the purpose of this essay to exhibit this truth through the succeeding paragraphs of life, The Sower, and symbolization. When Jean-Francois Millet was born on October 4th of the year 1814, he did …show more content…
When one views the 1850 version of The Sower, for Millet created at least three seperate editions of this peice, one beholds a field of tilled dirt, waiting for planting, which stretches off into the background and meets a blue sky in which swirls of dust float on the breeze. The scene is rendered at sunrise, for strip of mild pink is visible on the horizon. In the background, disappearing over a low hilltop, a man is barely visible hauling two hay bails resting on a wagon of sorts. Striding down the hill above mentioned, the sower for whom the piece is named, labors at his daily work. Wearing thick blue pants, a loose, rust-colored shirt, dusty, knee-high boots, and a dark hat with the brim pulled so low that his face is overshadowed, but a few of this man's thoughts and emotions can be surmised from his appearance alone. Yet one can observe that he is working briskly and seriously at his task: A sack of seeds is tied across his torso, and his hand is outstretched, dropping seeds along the ground as he walks. This man, the sower, seems rather too large for the piece, yet upon examination, one must credit this oddity to the fact that not much landscape is visible around him; much like in a portrait, the peasant himself is the centerpice of the scene. Yet in comparison to the wee man in the background, the sower is nevertheless gargantuan, for his hat-clad head is the same size as the reaper, and his wagon and hay bails combined, and the elbow of his oustretched arm is about even with the brow of the hill in the