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{{short description|Jean-François Millet painting, 1860–62}}
{{Short description|Jean-François Millet painting, 1860–62}}
{{italic title}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2023|cs1-dates=ly}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2023|cs1-dates=ly}}
{{for|the poem inspired by the painting|The Man with the Hoe}}
{{Infobox artwork
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Man With a Hoe
| title = Man with a Hoe
| painting_alignment =
| other_language_1 = French
| other_language_1 = French
| other_title_1 = L'homme à la houe
| other_title_1 = L'homme à la houe
| wikidata = Q20180844
| wikidata = Q20180844
| image = Millet, Jean-François - Man with a Hoe - Google Art Project.jpg
| image = Millet, Jean-François - Man with a Hoe - Google Art Project.jpg
| image_upright =
| image_upright = 1.6
| alt =
| artist = [[Jean-François Millet]]
| caption =
| year = 1860–1862
| artist = Jean-François Millet
| year = 1860–62
| completion_date = <!-- For a more specific date (post-1583): {{start date|YYYY|MM|DD|df=y}} -->
| catalogue =
| catalogue =
| medium =
| medium = oil on canvas
| movement =
| movement =
| subject =
| subject =
| height_metric = 81.9
| height_metric = 81.9
| width_metric = 100.3
| width_metric = 100.3
| length_metric =
| length_metric =
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| designation =
| designation =
| condition =
| condition =
| museum = [[Getty Museum]]
| museum = [[J. Paul Getty Museum]]
| city = [[Los Angeles]]
| city = [[Los Angeles]]
| coordinates = <!-- Only use for the coordinates (when known) of the artwork itself, i.e. not for the site, building, structure, etc where it is kept, otherwise leave blank (or omit): {{coord|LAT|LON|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} -->
| owner =
| accession =
| preceded_by = <!-- preceding work by the same artist -->
| followed_by = <!-- next work by the same artist -->
| module =
| website = {{URL|https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RGZ|Getty object 85.PA.114}}
| website = {{URL|https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RGZ|Getty object 85.PA.114}}
}}
}}
'''''Man With a Hoe''''' ({{lang-fr|'''L'homme à la houe'''}}), sometimes called '''''The Labourer''''', is a painting in the [[Realism (arts)|French Realist]] style by [[Jean-François Millet]] currently in the collection of the [[Getty Museum]] in California, United States. ''Man With a Hoe'' depicts a weary agricultural worker with blunt facial features and rustic clothing taking a moment of rest as he struggles to clear stones and pernicious weeds from a farm field.


'''''Man with a Hoe''''' ({{langx|fr|'''L'homme à la houe'''}}), sometimes called '''''The Labourer''''', is a painting by the [[Realism (arts)|French Realist]] painter [[Jean-François Millet]], created 1860–1862. It is held in the [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], in [[Los Angeles]]. ''Man With a Hoe'' depicts a weary agricultural worker with blunt facial features and rustic clothing taking a moment of rest as he struggles to clear stones and pernicious weeds from a farm field.
== History ==
''L'homme à la houe'' was first exhibited at the salon of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts|Academie des Beaux-Arts]] in Paris in 1863.<ref name=":1">{{cite news|title=It caused a hoe and cry|newspaper=[[The Daily Mail]]|id=03077578|date=2015-08-19}}</ref> The immediate response from several critics was wrath; [[Paul Saint-Victor]] notably wrote, "He lights his lantern and looks for a cretin; he must have searched for a long time before finding his peasant leaning on a hoe...There is no gleam of human intelligence in this animal. Has he just come from working? Or from murdering?" Saint-Victor is believed to have been comparing the subject of the painting to French serial killer [[Martin Dumollard]].<ref name=":1" />


==History==
''Man with a Hoe'' was a deliberately provocative in its aesthetic if not its politics; "in which he made a clean sweep of everything that could possibly please, and displayed his roughness absolutely bare. It was, as he said himself, the sheer 'cry of the earth' in all its savage reality."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rolland|first1=Romain|first2=Clementina|last2=Black|title=Millet|location=London|publisher= Duckworth & Co.|year=1920|page=131|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100885360/Home}}</ref> The inclusion of thistles and thorns in the left foreground is said to be suggestive of "barrenness, toil, pain and the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Passion of the Christ]]."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Herbert |first=Robert L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lvj3voHfBNQC&dq=%22Man+with+a+hoe%22+millet&pg=PA32 |title=From Millet to Léger: Essays in Social Art History |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-300-09706-1 |pages=32–34 |language=en |oclc=48958599}}</ref> ''The Man with a Hoe'' was the last painting of Millet's so-called "radical" era, which began with ''The Sower'' (1850).<ref name=":2" />
''L'homme à la houe'' was first exhibited at the salon of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts|Academie des Beaux-Arts]] in Paris in 1863.<ref name=":1">{{cite news|title=It caused a hoe and cry|newspaper=[[The Daily Mail]]|id=03077578|date=2015-08-19}}</ref> The immediate response from several critics was wrath; Paul Saint-Victor notably wrote, "He lights his lantern and looks for a cretin; he must have searched for a long time before finding his peasant leaning on a hoe...There is no gleam of human intelligence in this animal. Has he just come from working? Or from murdering?" Saint-Victor is believed to have been comparing the subject of the painting to French serial killer [[Martin Dumollard]].<ref name=":1" />


''Man with a Hoe'' was deliberately provocative in its aesthetic if not its politics; "in which he made a clean sweep of everything that could possibly please, and displayed his roughness absolutely bare. It was, as he said himself, the sheer 'cry of the earth' in all its savage reality."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rolland|first1=Romain|first2=Clementina|last2=Black|title=Millet|series=Popular library of art |location=London|publisher= Duckworth & Co.|year=1920|page=131|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100885360/Home}}</ref> The inclusion of thistles and thorns in the left foreground is said to be suggestive of "barrenness, toil, pain and the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Passion of the Christ]]."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Herbert |first=Robert L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lvj3voHfBNQC&dq=%22Man+with+a+hoe%22+millet&pg=PA32 |title=From Millet to Léger: Essays in Social Art History |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-300-09706-1 |pages=32–34 |language=en |oclc=48958599}}</ref> ''The Man with a Hoe'' was the last painting of Millet's so-called "radical" era, which began with ''[[The Sower (Millet)|The Sower]]'' (1850).<ref name=":2" />
After the initial shock of the new, Man with a Hoe lived a quiet life until the 1880s when it re-emerged as a star of three major French exhibitions including the art show at the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 World's Fair]] in Paris.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Allan |date=2020-05-19 |title=How Millet's Man with a Hoe Survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake |url=https://www.getty.edu/news/the-san-francisco-earthquake-of-1906-and-the-miraculous-survival-of-millets-man-with-a-hoe |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Getty News & Stories |language=en}}</ref>


After the initial shock of the new, ''Man with a Hoe'' lived a quiet life until the 1880s when it re-emerged as a star of three major French exhibitions including the art show at the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 World's Fair]] in Paris.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=Allan |date=2020-05-19 |title=How Millet's Man with a Hoe Survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake |url=https://www.getty.edu/news/the-san-francisco-earthquake-of-1906-and-the-miraculous-survival-of-millets-man-with-a-hoe |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=Getty News & Stories |language=en}}</ref>
[[Ellen Sperry Crocker]], wife of [[William Henry Crocker|William H. Crocker]], bought the painting in 1891 and brought it to the United States.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgxIAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Man+with+a+hoe%22+millet&pg=PA144 |title=Famous Pictures Owned on the West Coast|magazine=[[The Overland Monthly]] |date=1893 |publisher=Samuel Carson |page=144 |language=en}}</ref> The price was said to be 700,000 [[French franc]]s or {{USD|125000|1891|link=yes|about=yes}}.<ref name=":3" /> The Crockers' butler, Mr. Head, saved the painting from the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire]] that destroyed the Crockers' [[Nob Hill, San Francisco|Nob Hill]] home.<ref name=":3" /> The Getty Museum purchased it from Crocker's heirs in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Man with a Hoe (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection) |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RGZ | id=85.PA.114 |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection |language=en}}</ref>


[[Ethel Sperry Crocker]], wife of [[William Henry Crocker|William H. Crocker]], bought the painting in 1891 and brought it to the United States.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgxIAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Man+with+a+hoe%22+millet&pg=PA144 |title=Famous Pictures Owned on the West Coast|magazine=[[The Overland Monthly]] |date=1893 |publisher=Samuel Carson |page=144 |language=en}}</ref> The price was said to be 700,000 [[French franc]]s or {{USD|125000|1891|link=yes|about=yes}}.<ref name=":3" /> The Crockers' [[butler]], Mr. Head, saved the painting from the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire]] that destroyed the Crockers' [[Nob Hill, San Francisco|Nob Hill]] home.<ref name=":3" /> The Getty Museum purchased it from Crocker's heirs in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Man with a Hoe (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection) |url=https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RGZ | id=85.PA.114 |access-date=2023-01-16 |website=The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection |language=en}}</ref>
== Influence ==
Along with ''[[Woman Pasturing Her Cow]]'' and ''[[The Gleaners]]'', ''Man With a Hoe'' is a Millet painting that casts "a critical light on the conditions of rural labor under the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]] and explains his sometimes marginal status in the regime's fine arts institutions."<ref>Bradley Fratello (2003) France Embraces Millet: The Intertwined Fates of ''The Gleaners'' and ''The Angelus'',The Art Bulletin, 85:4, 685-701, DOI: 10.1080/00043079.2003.10787097</ref>


==Influence==
The painting has long been seen to have a political subtext. American critic [[Ednah Dow Cheney]] in 1867, in her consideration of the painting's respect for physical labor and the working class generally, wrote, "It stirs the soul with every great problem of life and thought. We would have soon as trusted [[William Lloyd Garrison|Garrison]] or [[Wendell Phillips]] to lecture in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] before [[American Civil War|the war]] as have placed...''The Laborer'' at the mercy of slave holders."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Meixner |first=Laura L. |date=1983-03-01 |title=Popular Criticism of Jean-Francois Millet in Nineteenth-Century America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050301 |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=94–105 |doi=10.2307/3050301|jstor=3050301 }}</ref>
Along with ''Woman Pasturing Her Cow'' and ''[[The Gleaners]]'', ''Man With a Hoe'' is a Millet painting that casts "a critical light on the conditions of rural labor under the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]] and explains [Millet's] sometimes marginal status in the regime's fine arts institutions."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fratello |first=Bradley |date=December 2003 |title=France Embraces Millet: The Intertwined Fates of "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3177365 |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=685–701 |doi=10.2307/3177365|jstor=3177365 }}</ref>


The painting has long been seen to have a political and/or philosophical subtext. American critic [[Ednah Dow Cheney]] in 1867, in her consideration of the painting's respect for physical labor and the working class generally, wrote, "It stirs the soul with every great problem of life and thought. We would have soon as trusted [[William Lloyd Garrison|Garrison]] or [[Wendell Phillips]] to lecture in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] before [[American Civil War|the war]] as have placed...''The Laborer'' at the mercy of slave holders."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Meixner |first=Laura L. |date=1983-03-01 |title=Popular Criticism of Jean-Francois Millet in Nineteenth-Century America |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3050301 |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=94–105 |doi=10.2307/3050301|jstor=3050301 }}</ref> In 1908 [[Gutzon Borglum]] and [[Walter W. Winans|Walter Winans]] wrote that it was not a man with a hoe so much as a "MAN, HANDICAPPED, battling with nature for food, which nature will only yield to him through eternal conflict."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Borglum |first1=Gutzon |last2=Winans |first2=Walter |date=1918 |title=The Revolt in Art |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20544008 |journal=The Lotus Magazine |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=215–221 |issn=2150-5977 |jstor=20544008 |jstor-access=free}}</ref>
According to the critic [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], Millet's ''Man With a Hoe'', ''The Gleaners,'' ''[[The Sower (Millet)|The Sower]]'', and ''[[The Angelus (painting)|The Angelus]]'' were collectively "the most popular works of art in the new age of mass production, disseminated by millions of engravings, postcards, knickknacks and parodies. ''The Sower'' became the ''[[Mona Lisa]]'' of [[socialism]], but it served [[capitalism]] equally well as the corporate emblem of its owners, the Provident National Bank in Philadelphia."<ref>{{cite magazine|title=A Great Lost Painter|last1=Hughes|first1=Robert|magazine=[[TIME Magazine]] | id= 0040781X | date=1976-02-23 | volume=107 | issue= 8}}</ref>


According to the critic [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], Millet's ''Man With a Hoe'', ''The Gleaners,'' ''The Sower'', and ''[[The Angelus (painting)|The Angelus]]'' were collectively "the most popular works of art in the new age of mass production, disseminated by millions of engravings, postcards, knickknacks and parodies. ''The Sower'' became the ''[[Mona Lisa]]'' of [[socialism]], but it served [[capitalism]] equally well as the corporate emblem of its owners, the [[PNC Financial Services#Provident National Bank|Provident National Bank]] in Philadelphia."<ref>{{cite magazine|title=A Great Lost Painter|last1=Hughes|first1=Robert|magazine=[[TIME Magazine]] | id= 0040781X | date=1976-02-23 | volume=107 | issue= 8}}</ref>
The painting inspired [[Edwin Markham]]'s poem "The Man With the Hoe."<ref name=":0" />


The painting inspired [[Edwin Markham]]'s 1898 poem "[[The Man with the Hoe|The Man With the Hoe]]."<ref name=":0" />
== References ==

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

{{commons category|L'homme à la houe, by Jean-François Millet (II)}}

{{Jean-François Millet}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man with a Hoe}}
[[Category:1862 paintings]]
[[Category:Oil on canvas paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by Jean-François Millet]]
[[Category:Farming in art]]
[[Category:Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum]]
[[Category:1906 San Francisco earthquake]]

Latest revision as of 02:19, 5 November 2024

Man with a Hoe
French: L'homme à la houe
ArtistJean-François Millet
Year1860–1862
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions81.9 cm × 100.3 cm (32.2 in × 39.5 in)
LocationJ. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
WebsiteGetty object 85.PA.114

Man with a Hoe (French: L'homme à la houe), sometimes called The Labourer, is a painting by the French Realist painter Jean-François Millet, created 1860–1862. It is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum, in Los Angeles. Man With a Hoe depicts a weary agricultural worker with blunt facial features and rustic clothing taking a moment of rest as he struggles to clear stones and pernicious weeds from a farm field.

History

[edit]

L'homme à la houe was first exhibited at the salon of the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1863.[1] The immediate response from several critics was wrath; Paul Saint-Victor notably wrote, "He lights his lantern and looks for a cretin; he must have searched for a long time before finding his peasant leaning on a hoe...There is no gleam of human intelligence in this animal. Has he just come from working? Or from murdering?" Saint-Victor is believed to have been comparing the subject of the painting to French serial killer Martin Dumollard.[1]

Man with a Hoe was deliberately provocative in its aesthetic if not its politics; "in which he made a clean sweep of everything that could possibly please, and displayed his roughness absolutely bare. It was, as he said himself, the sheer 'cry of the earth' in all its savage reality."[2] The inclusion of thistles and thorns in the left foreground is said to be suggestive of "barrenness, toil, pain and the Passion of the Christ."[3] The Man with a Hoe was the last painting of Millet's so-called "radical" era, which began with The Sower (1850).[3]

After the initial shock of the new, Man with a Hoe lived a quiet life until the 1880s when it re-emerged as a star of three major French exhibitions including the art show at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris.[4]

Ethel Sperry Crocker, wife of William H. Crocker, bought the painting in 1891 and brought it to the United States.[5] The price was said to be 700,000 French francs or US$125,000 (equivalent to about $4,238,889 in 2023).[4] The Crockers' butler, Mr. Head, saved the painting from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire that destroyed the Crockers' Nob Hill home.[4] The Getty Museum purchased it from Crocker's heirs in 1985.[6]

Influence

[edit]

Along with Woman Pasturing Her Cow and The Gleaners, Man With a Hoe is a Millet painting that casts "a critical light on the conditions of rural labor under the Second Empire and explains [Millet's] sometimes marginal status in the regime's fine arts institutions."[7]

The painting has long been seen to have a political and/or philosophical subtext. American critic Ednah Dow Cheney in 1867, in her consideration of the painting's respect for physical labor and the working class generally, wrote, "It stirs the soul with every great problem of life and thought. We would have soon as trusted Garrison or Wendell Phillips to lecture in Charleston before the war as have placed...The Laborer at the mercy of slave holders."[8] In 1908 Gutzon Borglum and Walter Winans wrote that it was not a man with a hoe so much as a "MAN, HANDICAPPED, battling with nature for food, which nature will only yield to him through eternal conflict."[9]

According to the critic Robert Hughes, Millet's Man With a Hoe, The Gleaners, The Sower, and The Angelus were collectively "the most popular works of art in the new age of mass production, disseminated by millions of engravings, postcards, knickknacks and parodies. The Sower became the Mona Lisa of socialism, but it served capitalism equally well as the corporate emblem of its owners, the Provident National Bank in Philadelphia."[10]

The painting inspired Edwin Markham's 1898 poem "The Man With the Hoe."[8]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "It caused a hoe and cry". The Daily Mail. 19 August 2015. 03077578.
  2. ^ Rolland, Romain; Black, Clementina (1920). Millet. Popular library of art. London: Duckworth & Co. p. 131.
  3. ^ a b Herbert, Robert L. (2002). From Millet to Léger: Essays in Social Art History. Yale University Press. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-0-300-09706-1. OCLC 48958599.
  4. ^ a b c Scott, Allan (19 May 2020). "How Millet's Man with a Hoe Survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake". Getty News & Stories. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  5. ^ "Famous Pictures Owned on the West Coast". The Overland Monthly. Samuel Carson. 1893. p. 144.
  6. ^ "Man with a Hoe (The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection)". The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. 85.PA.114. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
  7. ^ Fratello, Bradley (December 2003). "France Embraces Millet: The Intertwined Fates of "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus"". The Art Bulletin. 85 (4): 685–701. doi:10.2307/3177365. JSTOR 3177365.
  8. ^ a b Meixner, Laura L. (1 March 1983). "Popular Criticism of Jean-Francois Millet in Nineteenth-Century America". The Art Bulletin. 65 (1): 94–105. doi:10.2307/3050301. JSTOR 3050301.
  9. ^ Borglum, Gutzon; Winans, Walter (1918). "The Revolt in Art". The Lotus Magazine. 9 (5): 215–221. ISSN 2150-5977. JSTOR 20544008.
  10. ^ Hughes, Robert (23 February 1976). "A Great Lost Painter". TIME Magazine. Vol. 107, no. 8. 0040781X.