The Gleaner

Artist Jules Breton (Courrières, France, 1827 - 1906)

Date1875

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 73.5 cm, Width: 54.9 cm
Frame: Height: 103.3 cm, Width: 83.6 cm

AcquisitionAlexander Macdonald Bequest, 1901.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationOn Display - Gallery 10

Object numberABDAG002172

Keywords

About MeJules Breton was a highly regarded artist and his paintings were enormously influential on younger French painters and also on many Dutch artists - particularly those who had worked for extended periods in France, such as David Artz and Vincent van Gogh.

Breton does not idealise the peasant girl's strong features, dark sun-tanned skin and ragged clothes. Her feet are large, her ankles thick. She gazes directly at the viewer with an uncompromising, confident expression. It is her heroic dignity that is the overriding quality conveyed. One critic described 'The Gleaner' as having "the dignity of a goddess fallen from the sky".

Adopted in memory of Lesley Parker

To find out how to 'Adopt an Artwork' please email AAGMSupport-Us@aberdeencity.gov.uk
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Collections Wall

This work represents a figure in the act of gleaning. Typically, farmers harvested their fields and the remaining grains or 'gleanings', were left for the poor to gather for themselves.

Exhibitions

Gallery 10 - French Impressions