A Shepherdess and Her Flock in the Shade of Trees 1854 - 1855

Jean-François Millet made ‘A Shepherdess and Her Flock in the Shade of Trees’ with pastel on paper. Using this medium, the artist builds up soft, hazy layers of pigment. Pastel is interesting; it's basically pure pigment, the same stuff that makes up paint, but without much binder. This gives it a directness – you're essentially drawing with color. Look closely, and you can see the individual strokes, creating texture and a sense of atmosphere. Millet’s choice of pastel aligns with his broader interest in portraying the lives of rural laborers. Instead of the slick finish of an oil painting, the pastel gives the scene an unpretentious, almost earthy quality. There’s also a significant amount of labor embedded here, both in the life of the shepherdess, and in the way Millet painstakingly builds up the image with countless strokes. By choosing pastel, Millet bridges a gap between the immediacy of drawing and the more considered tradition of painting. Ultimately, the material and the making are inseparable from the subject itself.