Peasant Spreading Manure (Paysan répandant du fumier)
Currently on view
Jean-François Millet (1814 - 1875), 1851
oil on canvas, 37.3 cm x 55.2 cm
Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the VriendenLoterij and the members of the Yellow House Circle)
Spreading manure across the land by hand is hard work. Here Millet’s farmer is visibly toiling: he has draped his jacket and hat over a pitchfork and unbuttoned his shirt. The earthy tones in the foreground contrast with the soft pink glow of the sunset. Dusk announces the end of the workday, and with it a moment of rest for the labourer.
Millet did not shy away from portraying the harsh realities of rural life in his work, a quality many artists admired. Millet may well have been Van Gogh’s most significant role model. For Van Gogh, ‘Père Millet, [was] counsellor and guide in everything, for the younger painters.’
- Object number
- s0553S2023
- Dimensions
- 37.3 cm x 55.2 cm, 65.5 cm x 83 cm, 8 cm
- Provenance
- August Belmont, New York; after his death on 24 November 1890 inherited by his son August Belmont Jr.; after his death on 10 December 1924 inherited by his widow Eleanor Robson Belmont; sold by her to Shepherd Gallery, New York, 1972; sold by them to a collector, Japan, probably Gallery Sun Motoyama, Japan, before March 1973; auction New York, Sotheby’s (Important 19th century European paintings), lot 40 (Paysan répandant du fumier), purchased by a private collector, Japan for USD 250.000, 29 October 1981; sold by this private collector to Ekyn Maclean, New York, in 2016; sold by them to Driscoll Babcock, New York; sold by them to private collectors, United States; sold by them through Coleman Bancroft LLC, New York to the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 12 July 2023.
- artist
- Jean-François Millet
- Credits
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the VriendenLoterij and the members of the Yellow House Circle)
New York, National Academy of Design, Loan exhibition, 1893, no. 24
Moreau-Nelaton, Etienne, Millet : raconté par lui-même, Paris, 1921, Tome premier, p. 93
La Farge, J., The higher life in art : a series of lectures on the Barbizon School of France inaugurating the scammon course at the Art Institute of Chicago, New York, 1908, z.p.
Catalogue : loan exhibition 1893, New York, 1893, p. 15