The Wood Sawyers

Artwork: The Wood Sawyers

Artist: Jean-François Millet

Created: c. 1850-1852

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 95.5 x 119.5 cm (framed)

Weight: 31 kg with frame (this thing is very interesting)

Location: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Photography: @webgalleryofvisualart

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‘’Three colours dominate the earthen palette: the intense blue of the near sawyer’s trousers, his brilliant white shirt and the red of the third figure in the background. This colour scheme combined with the emphasis put on the strain of the figures may convey a political meaning. For instance, the Winnover, The National Gallery, London, exhibited at the Salon in 1848, has been interpreted as an allusion to the Revolution of February that year through the colours worn by the figure, blue, white and red, and the subject matter, separating the grain from the chaff.

X-ray photography shows that the scene was painted over an earlier composition, most likely the lost oil sketch for The Republic, unsuccessfully submitted by Millet at a French state competition in 1848. Around this time, Millet made two other sketches entitled L’Egalité and La Fraternité stylistically compatible with the underlying composition.’’ (Source of text V&A)

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