13. Gathering the Harvest 1909

Francis Davis Millet, somewhere around the turn of the century, painted ‘Gathering the Harvest’, and you can almost feel the sun beating down on the figures in the painting. I imagine Millet, standing in front of his easel, squinting at the field, trying to capture the weight of the harvest, the heft of the corn. The way the men's bodies are bent in labour, each carefully placed brushstroke becomes an act of empathy. You see that one figure in the red shirt? Notice the subtle shades of red that Millet uses, evoking the man's exertion, as he bows down to work the field. Millet isn't just painting bodies, he’s painting labor. It makes you think about all the artists who have painted similar scenes of work, connecting past and present in their own ways. Painting is like that, a conversation across time, where each artist picks up the brush and adds their own voice to the story. So much for the artist to see and capture in the world, so much for us to see in the painting.