Gleaner is the work of the outstanding French realistic farmer painter Miller (18 14- 1875) in the 19 century, which was completed in 1857. It is the work that best represents Miller's style. It didn't show any dramatic scenes, but people picked up the remaining ears of wheat from the fields after the autumn harvest. The main body of the picture is just three peasant women bending over to pick up the ears of wheat, and the background is busy crowds and high-piled wheat piles. Although I can't see the expressions on their faces clearly, it's not hard to imagine a determined face from those simple and hard-working figures. In contrast to the crowd in the distance, the three men were wearing coarse clothes and heavy wooden shoes. They are strong, unattractive and even less elegant. They just humbly bow down and look for scattered and leftover food in the earth. However, this simple painting gives the audience an unusual sense of solemnity.
This is a very real, kind and beautiful picture of rural labor life, which gives people rich associations. In the picture, Miller uses a charming warm yellow tone, and the calm and rich colors of the red and blue headscarves are also blended with yellow. The whole picture is quiet and solemn, conveying Miller's deep sympathy for farmers' hard life and Miller's special love for rural life in an idyllic way.
It is not difficult to see that the painter has a profound personal experience of the pain and suffering of labor, especially the meaning of "sweat dripping on the soil, every grain is hard". The technique of the whole work is very simple, the clear sky and the golden wheat field are very harmonious, and the rich colors are unified in soft tones. Like other representative works of Miller, the content of the painting is easy to understand, simple and simple, but it is not mediocre and shallow, but profound and thought-provoking, which is an important feature of Miller's art.
It is said that standing in front of Miller's works, enthusiastic people will smell the smell of weeds and land, mixed with the smell of cow dung, and will shed tears in the picture, evoking infinite imagination of rural life. The crisp autumn wind blew away the sultry summer heat and brought a little coolness. This autumn wind blows over mountains, rivers and wheat fields, and dyes the wheat fields golden. Wheat has faded from the green growing season, and it smells mature everywhere. In the field, farmers are busy, cutting mature wheat into bundles of heavy wheat, throwing them into wagons and transporting them to granaries. After the wheat harvest, in a slightly abrupt field, several peasant women dressed in coarse clothes and heavy wooden shoes bent down to search every corner and carefully picked up the ears of wheat left in the field. Miller was a teacher of French realism in the19th century, and his large number of oil paintings, sketches and prints with farmers as the theme still give us profound inspiration and encouragement.
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The original title of this painting was August. It shows a bumper harvest scene, comparing the rich and beautiful rural natural scenery with the hard work of farmers. Several social activists close to Miller saw the valuable truth in this painting and suggested that the painter modify the composition until there were only three peasant women in the foreground. This modification has produced amazing social effects.
What is thought-provoking is, why can the Scavengers have such a great shock? Julie Casta Neri, Miller's artistic defender, once described this painting: "Modern artists believe that beggars in broad daylight are indeed more beautiful than kings sitting on thrones; When the owner's cart full of wheat groaned under the heavy pressure in the distance, I saw three bent peasant women picking up ears of wheat in the harvested field, which worried me more than seeing a saint die. This painting makes people feel terrible. Unlike some of Courbet's paintings, it will not become impassioned political speeches or social papers. This is a work of art, very beautiful and simple, independent discussion. Its theme is very touching and accurate; But this painting is so frank that it is above the general party debate, so that it shows a true and great chapter of nature without lying or exaggeration, just like Homer and Virgil's poems. "
Born in a peasant family, Miller has a special affection for nature and rural life since he was a child. He has always hoped to show the world the simple and hardworking image of French farmers with his own brush.
Miller believes that art is the mission of love, not hate. When he showed the sufferings of the poor, he did not incite hatred against the rich class. All he has to do is try his best to understand how to express lofty thoughts with ordinary and subtle things, because there is real power there. To show all this harmoniously and naturally, we need not only the painter's eyes and hands, but also his whole body and mind!
Miller generally uses horizontal composition to make monumental figures appear on the foreground Yuan Ye. The three protagonists are wearing red, blue and Huang San hats respectively, and their clothes are also the main colors, which firmly attract the audience's attention. Their movements are coherent, calm and orderly, and the light source arranged on the left side of the picture shines on the characters, making them more stereoscopic and patient. Maybe I was tired after bending over for a long time, but I persisted. Although their faces are hidden, their movements and bodies are more expressive-patience, humility and loyalty.
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In his eyes, there is naturally "endless magnificence". In this painting, Miller tries to lead us into the depths of the land, feel her heaviness and fullness in the open and quiet landscape, listen to her deep and quiet breathing, experience her simple and tenacious life, and experience the fate of the land and the farmers running naturally on the land.
Like Miller, he portrayed ordinary people expressively with dignified and simple generalizations. What he shows is the intimate relationship between man and the earth, which is simple and ordinary that epic can't achieve. We felt a deep religious feeling from these three peasant women wearing coarse clothes and heavy wooden shoes. Facing survival, human beings bow their heads piously. Although the birds flying in the distance still set off the pastoral mood, we know that pastoral life cannot be idealized.