Shepherdess Knitting (La Grande Bergère)

Though not as prolific an etcher as Charles Jacque or Charles-François Daubigny, Millet developed an original and individual style of printmaking. He was also the first to represent the peasant at work, as a generalized figure taking part in the great seasonal cycles of labor. The peasant’s seasonal time connoted a slow, natural rhythm at the opposite pole from the mechanized repetition and accelerated pace of urban work.

Neither picturesque nor caricatured, Millet’s peasants often exude the same immutable character as the land itself. He imbued them with a true moral fervor and heroism. Even when they rest from her work, the knitting shepherdess shown here remains, respectively, industrious and watchful.