The Shepherdess Knitting

Jean-François Millet decided to escape cholera-ridden Paris for the Barbizon countryside in the late 1840s. Although well educated, Millet was born of peasant stock and naturally favored rural subject matter. He is famous for elevating the daily existence of French peasantry to heroic heights. With six daughters to feed and the Paris Salons not quite ready for his rustic paintings, Millet turned in 1855 to etching as a faster way to sell some work. Here he dignifies the shepherdess by placing her monumental form directly before us, her contemplative mood heightened by strong shadow.