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拍品專文
This powerful and touching drawing was executed in 1859-1860 as Millet returned to his compelling theme of a poor family working the land, a subject that had engaged him and resulted in many smaller sketches since he had arrived in the farming community in Barbizon in 1849 and which was also the subject of his masterpiece, The Gleaners (Musée d’Orsay) which was painted two years prior to the present work.
As Alexandra Murphy noted in her previous entry on this drawing, it was the precise interaction between the husband and wife and their individual poses in planting the potatoes that appealed to the artist along with the accompanying elements that could balance the vast landscape and capture the complexities of poverty and plenty and the redemptive dignity of hard work that was at the heart of his art.
The subject matter displays Millet’s understanding of the lived experience and harsh reality of many who lived off the land. This family, depicted with their young child sleeping in the pannier next to the donkey, were planting sustaining potatoes, a much cheaper crop, rather than a valuable grain crop which would be harvested to feed the city population. The dependence on the land for their livelihood and its fundamental significance is emphasised by the couple’s young child peacefully sleeping while they work. The tethered donkey, a beast of burden, completes the deliberate allusion to the Holy Family, such religious resonances were frequent in the artist’s work.
Several elements in Les Planteurs de Pommes de Terre reveal both the time of year and the time of day. It is early Spring, the fields beyond are fallow, not yet planted and the fruit trees, that mark the boundary, are only just in leaf. The shadows are quite short and the low angle of the sun hitting the shoulders indicate the early hour of the day.
Millet’s observation of the family in the present work can be seen as early as 1851, when he executed a preparatory sketch, Les Semeurs, featuring the same two figures (now untraced, last exhibited: Nice, Le Second Empire A Nice 1860-1870, 1931, unnumbered, p. 24). The artist's fascination with these subjects continue on with his celebrated Potato Planters (Museum of Fine Art, Boston) painted circa 1861, which closely follows the composition of the present finished drawing. Since the mid-1850s Millet’s exhibited paintings had attracted considerable criticism and he relied on the sale of finished drawings to support his family, sustained by a group of committed collectors who appreciated these highly worked, intimate drawings.
The present drawing was lost and remained unpublished until sold as part of the Mamdouha and Elmer Holmes Bobst Collection at Sotheby’s, but its importance as a drawing can be seen in the scale of the work, the high level of finish and his use of coloured crayons to accent and highlight.
As Alexandra Murphy noted in her previous entry on this drawing, it was the precise interaction between the husband and wife and their individual poses in planting the potatoes that appealed to the artist along with the accompanying elements that could balance the vast landscape and capture the complexities of poverty and plenty and the redemptive dignity of hard work that was at the heart of his art.
The subject matter displays Millet’s understanding of the lived experience and harsh reality of many who lived off the land. This family, depicted with their young child sleeping in the pannier next to the donkey, were planting sustaining potatoes, a much cheaper crop, rather than a valuable grain crop which would be harvested to feed the city population. The dependence on the land for their livelihood and its fundamental significance is emphasised by the couple’s young child peacefully sleeping while they work. The tethered donkey, a beast of burden, completes the deliberate allusion to the Holy Family, such religious resonances were frequent in the artist’s work.
Several elements in Les Planteurs de Pommes de Terre reveal both the time of year and the time of day. It is early Spring, the fields beyond are fallow, not yet planted and the fruit trees, that mark the boundary, are only just in leaf. The shadows are quite short and the low angle of the sun hitting the shoulders indicate the early hour of the day.
Millet’s observation of the family in the present work can be seen as early as 1851, when he executed a preparatory sketch, Les Semeurs, featuring the same two figures (now untraced, last exhibited: Nice, Le Second Empire A Nice 1860-1870, 1931, unnumbered, p. 24). The artist's fascination with these subjects continue on with his celebrated Potato Planters (Museum of Fine Art, Boston) painted circa 1861, which closely follows the composition of the present finished drawing. Since the mid-1850s Millet’s exhibited paintings had attracted considerable criticism and he relied on the sale of finished drawings to support his family, sustained by a group of committed collectors who appreciated these highly worked, intimate drawings.
The present drawing was lost and remained unpublished until sold as part of the Mamdouha and Elmer Holmes Bobst Collection at Sotheby’s, but its importance as a drawing can be seen in the scale of the work, the high level of finish and his use of coloured crayons to accent and highlight.