Woman with a Churn
1854
Jean-François Millet was the ultimate champion of the working class, and this sketch proves it. Here we see a peasant woman hard at work churning butter, a tedious daily chore that Millet elevates into a subject worthy of art. Drawn with loose, expressive strokes and signed with his initials 'J.F.M' in the corner, it captures the heavy, rhythmic labor of rural life in mid-19th century France. Millet grew up on a farm himself, so he didn't just paint peasants from a distance; he knew the weight of that churn handle intimately. This piece is a perfect example of the Realist movement, which decided that a farmer's life was just as important as a king's.
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