What it is
Three poor women bend over a stubble field to pick up the grain left behind after the harvest, while the great golden stacks and the reaping crew glow in the distance.
What it represents
The dignity of hard, humble labour, and the gap between abundance and what is left for those who work for it.
The symbolism
The three bowed backs repeat like a slow sentence. The light is warm and generous, but it falls on the wealthy side of the field. Millet paints exhaustion without a trace of self-pity, which is exactly why it is hard to look away from.
Poems and letters beside it
poem
Work Without Hope
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1825)
Labour that goes on without any promise of reward. The gleaners stoop for what the harvest left behind.
