The Gleaners

Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857, oil on canvas, 83.5 x 110 cm (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

Millet's painting depicts three women who have come back to the field after the harvest, which can be seen in the background. There is a wagon piled high with wheat, and further in the distance are large stacks of grain. An overseer on horseback can also be seen in the background on the right side of the composition.
Gleaning was a necessary practice for many farm workers in 19th century France, who are picking up the fallen grains of wheat which they will use to feed their families.
When this painting was exhibited it was widely criticized because it made Parisian society, especially the upper classes uneasy. What would happen if these people became radicalized? France had been rocked for decades by civil unrest, revolts, revolutions, government crackdowns, but above all the crushing poverty in which the majority of French citizenry endured.
In addition, while this painting is not monumental in size, it is quite large, and paintings of this size were almost exclusively reserved for royalty, religious subjects or historical paintings. The fact that Millet has elevated these three peasant women to the same level as royalty or Biblical figures made a clear political statement; a social commentary that was unnerving to Parisian aristocracy.