Thursday, November 25, 2004

the gleaners - Millet part 2


This is the Millet painting i referred to in a comment on Scott's post. I said it taught me about Ruth and i guess this is the story my parents told me about the painting. it is one of my all-time favorites.

1 comment:

billy said...

Geoff,

I never cease to be amazed at the ability of artists to stimulate the imagination by rendering small ordinary moments of everyday experience into profound and abiding statements about life & death, doubt & faith, and despair & hope, etc. And this painting is certainly no exception. The detail work of the field is simply astounding. You can almost imagine yourself stepping out into the field and joining the workers. And the posture of kneeling down to harvest communicates so many different things, taking the imagiantion down a myriad of roads. I can see why, as a kid growing up on the farm, this picture meant so much to you. It related to the context you we're familiar with while at the same time taking you far beyond it into another time and place (or maybe that's my supposition?). At any rate, thanks for sharing the photo and the story that goes with it.