Potato Planters
Jean-François Millet
(French, 1814–1875)
about 1861
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions82.5 x 101.3 cm (32 1/2 x 39 7/8 in.)
Credit LineGift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession number17.1505
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
In Millet’s time, many people considered potatoes unfit food even for animals, but these peasants are planting potatoes for themselves to eat. “Why should the work of a potato planter,” wrote the artist, “be less interesting or less noble than any other activity?” Millet gives the harsh reality of their lives beauty and dignity, placing his solidly modeled, harmonious figures before a hazy landscape just beginning to green in the spring sun. The presence of the donkey and the sleeping child under the tree may recall another poor working family—the Holy Family of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Such religious resonances were frequent in Millet’s work.
Provenance1862, sold by the artist to his dealers, Ennemond Blanc and Arthur Stevens [see note 1]. 1867, M. Soultzener, Paris [see note 2]. March 13, 1877, Baron de Hauff sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 26 [see note 3]. By 1879, Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston; 1917, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw, through Quincy Adams Shaw Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] Exhibited in "Cercle de l'Union Artistique," Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1862.
[2] He lent the painting to the "Exposition Universelle," Paris, 1867, cat. no. 479.
[3] The picture was consigned anonymously to this sale.
NOTES:
[1] Exhibited in "Cercle de l'Union Artistique," Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1862.
[2] He lent the painting to the "Exposition Universelle," Paris, 1867, cat. no. 479.
[3] The picture was consigned anonymously to this sale.
