Jean François MilletFrench, 1814–1875The Gleaners
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Musée d'Orsay
Paris, France
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- In this state since
- Sep 29, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
The Gleaners (Des glaneuses) is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. It is held in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris.
It depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. The painting is famous for featuring in a sympathetic way what were then the lowest ranks of rural society; it was received poorly by the French upper classes.
Particulars
- Accession number
- RF 592
Sources
- Wikidata · fetched 3 days ago
- Image: Musée d'Orsay — Jean-François Millet · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, in the life of Jean François Millet
The whole life1857
“The Gleaners” at the Salon: a hostile public
In 1857 he submitted “The Gleaners” to the Salon to an unenthusiastic, even hostile, public.
1857
Son born: Charles Millet
after 1857
A turn to the poetic side of peasant life
The picture drew mixed reactions from the public and critics, and the artist turned for a time to the more poetic sides of peasant life: in the 1850s he worked on scenes of humble peasant dwellings with serene, solitary female figures devoted to bringing up children or running the household.
1859
The painting becomes “The Angelus”
When the purchaser failed to take possession of the painting in 1859, Millet added a steeple and changed the initial title, “Prayer for the Potato Crop”, to “The Angelus”.
