The Wood Sawyers 1852

Jean-François Millet’s "The Wood Sawyers" is an oil painting that shows two laborers cutting a large tree trunk, expressing the physicality of labor. The artist makes the effort of sawing palpable through the composition, where the bent postures and strained muscles suggest the exertion required by such a task. We see an intimacy with the material: the sawyers are face-to-face with the tree trunk. The coarse texture of the wood is evoked through Millet’s brushstrokes, which add another layer of visceral quality to the scene. The painting style is raw and unrefined. Millet elevates a common and essential occupation to the level of high art, which in the process acknowledges the lives of workers. The painting challenges traditional artistic conventions and reminds us to consider the work and materiality in the world around us.