In Peasant Women with Brushwood, how is the Description discussed?
This is one of the many paintings where Millet depicted the harsh rural life of the French peasants. The painting depicts two peasant women returning home, at the twilight. They are dressed in homespun clothes and wear clogs, walking along a forest road while carrying huge bundles of brushwood on their backs. Their posture, with heads low-sunk and backs bent, demonstrates the heavy weight that they carry and their strength. The dark colors used make the human figures blend with the surrounding nature.Art historian A. G. Kostenevich describes the painting: "In Peasant Women with Brushwood in the figures of two women, from the clog to the head, Millet reproduces the tension, the resistance to the pressing burden. And the dark spot of the forest seems to be still piling up from above. But for all that, the tension is not brought to that excess that would offend the eye and prevent one from contemplating the picture. Measured, there is an almost solemn rhythm of the steps of peasant women."
brushwood