The Gleaners

1857

Oil on canvas, 83.5 × 110 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Three women bend to pick up stray grain left after the harvest, while the main harvest goes on far behind them.

Shown at the Salon of 1857, after nearly a decade spent on the subject.
A rider at the right, probably an estate overseer, marks who is in charge.
Ribner notes that the women never look capable of revolt, though some viewers read the picture as subversive.
Three bent figures given the weight of sculpture, not the pathos of charity.

Gleaning: gathering what the harvesters leave behind, a right traditionally allowed to the rural poor.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain