Millet: Young Woman Churning Butter

Millet is best known for his popular masterpiece The Angelus. A Frenchman, he embraced and influenced the Realist art movement in France during the mid-nineteenth century. This movement was a response to the Revolution of 1848 and sought to enshrine the contemporary lives of the humble working classes in an effort to move French society closer to democratic reform. Both Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet took inspiration from Millet’s style.

She rises while it is yet night
    and provides food for her household
    and tasks for her maidens.
She considers a field and buys it;
    with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

 She girds her loins with strength
    and makes her arms strong.

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
    Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
    and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor,
    and reaches out her hands to the needy.

~Proverbs 31, 15-20