Details

Object type

painting

Title

Going to Work

Artist/Maker

Jean-François Millet artist

Culture/School

French

Date

circa 1850 - 1851

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 820 mm x 690 mm x 160 mm; unframed: 560 x 460 mm

Description

This haunting painting of rural labour by Jean-François Millet is widely considered a masterpiece. The oil on canvas painting shows a male and a female peasant crossing the fields in front of an early morning sky. The man has a fork over his shoulder and the woman carries a basket on her head.

Millet’s seminal importance as a painter of peasants is reinforced by the presence in Glasgow Museums collection of works by artists who built on his reputation such as Jules Breton, Léon Lhermitte and Jules Bastien-Lepage.

Credit Line/Donor

Bequeathed by James Donald, 1905

ID Number

1111

Location

Kelvingrove French Art Gallery