The Gleaners Analysis

998 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Negative portrayal of women in the media

Women and nature have almost always been viewed as inexplicably intertwined. Whether it be by the cycles of the moon or by the seeming existence of “mother’s intuition,” artists and writers for centuries have been examining the relationship between women and nature. Similarly, the relationship between women and work has also been explored. Artists explored this to no end, especially at the beginning of the women’s rights movement. Gustave Courbet’s The Grain Sifters, 1854 and Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners, 1857 are but two examples.
The women’s rights activism started gaining momentum in 1848 during the very first women’s convention in New York. This happened only a few years before these paintings were painted, however it is more than
It does, however, demonstrate a similar back-breaking work as Millet’s painting. These women are dressed in brighter, more forward clothing, particularly the woman in red who is the central figure. Because of their position being inside, these ladies are paler and are focusing on the processing of the grain that was harvested, perhaps even by the same women in Millet’s painting. It shows a slightly higher tier of the working class of women in this time; rather than slaving away outside, they break their backs inside with monotonous and tedious work. One thing to note in this painting is that there is a young boy to the right examining a box. With a little digging, it can be found that this box is actually a modified piece of technology: a sifter with even finer mesh than that of the ladies. Courbet is throwing in our faces that even the little boy and the box are at a higher position in society than them. On the left, a woman seems to almost be asleep. In detail, you can see the shadows framing her face and the hollowness of her eye sockets. She is clearly sleep-deprived from this unvaried work. More care is taken by these women, whether forced or not, to look their best no matter what work is being done. They must be more presentable and are likely working in the same household as the owner lives and therefore must dress to respect them. Courbet paints these women in a way that is much more objectified

Show More
Related

  • Visual Analysis Bouuerau

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contextual Theory: This painting depicts a portrait of life during the late 1800’s. The women’s clothing and hair style represent that era. Gorgeous landscape and a leisurely moment are captured by the artist in this work of

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Sweat And The Yellow Wallpaper

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her

    Read More

  • Paul Delaroche's Portrayal Of Women In The 19th Century

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    The painting depicts a mother and her four children, who are all leaning on her as she looks down solemnly, her tired, despondent expression suggests she felt trapped in her roles as being a mother and a wife. The woman and her children are clearly the focal point of the artwork as the bright colours used to paint them stand out impeccably against the dull, lifeless colours of the background. This painting appears to be centred around the ideology that women are home-keepers, whose main role is to satisfy and assist her husband while simultaneously minding the children and keeping the home tidy and ready for his return. The social consequences of this artwork could have been that the woman could have been berated for not taking pleasure out of being a mother and raising her children, as a woman should. She could have been made redundant as her husband may have felt as though she is no longer useful if she couldn’t adequately adhere to her roles as a mother and a

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Cassatt's The Child And Mother Nursing Her Child

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Destructive Male By Elizabeth Cady Stanton

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fight for women’s rights began long before the Civil War, but the most prominent issue began after the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments joined the Constitution. The rights to all “citizens” of the United States identified all true “citizens” as men and therefore incited a revolution in civil rights for women (“The Fight for Women’s Suffrage”). The National Women’s Suffrage Convention of 1868

    Read More

  • The Power of the Written Word: Literary Greats Paving the Way for Social Equality

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history, women have struggled with, and fought against, oppression. They have been held back and weighed down by the sexist ideas of a male dominated society which has controlled cultural, economic and political ideas and structures. During the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s women became more vocal and rebuked sexism and the role that had been defined for them. Fighting with the powerful written word, women sought a voice, equality amongst men and an identity outside of their family. In many literary writings, especially by women, during the mid-1800’s to early 1900’s, we see symbols of oppression and the search for gender equality in society.

    Read More

  • The New Republic - Women's Rights

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women began standing up for more rights and realizing that they could be treated better. 1840 the World Anti-slavery Convention in London showed a great example of inferiority of women. Women were denied a seat at the convention because they were women. Women like Elizabeth C. Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott were enraged and inspired to launch the women’s rights movement. Elizabeth Stanton promoted women’s right to vote. “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to forment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Seneca Falls Convention And Its Impact

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of the great women who were willing to deal with those things were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Jane Hunt, Mary McClintock, and Martha C. Wright. These women gave this movement, its spark by conducting the first ever women’s rights convention. This convention was held in a church in Seneca Falls in 1848. At this convection they expressed their problems with how they were treated, as being less than a man. These women offered solutions to the problem by drafting the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    In 1848, the first ever Women’s Rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Though Stowe did not attend, many of those who were strong in the abolitionist movement, such as Fredrick Douglas and Amy Post, did. Thus a correlation was drawn between the abolitionist movement and women’s rights. Both fights were about equality, so naturally those who were supportive of emancipation were supportive of gender equality as well.

    Read More

  • 19th amendment

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women were getting tired of not having the same rights as men, so they wanted to make a move to change this. Women got so tired of staying at home while the men worked. Women wanted to get an education. So they fought for their freedom. Abigail Adams said to her husband, “in the new code of laws, remember the ladies and do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.” John’s reply was, “I cannot but laugh. Depend upon it, we know better than to repeal our masculine systems.” These were said in 1776. The women’s suffrage actually began in 1848, which was the first women’s rights convention which was held in Seneca Falls, New York. Prominent leaders began campaigning for the right to vote at State and federal levels. Susan B. Anthony was the leader for getting women their rights in the United States. Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, NY for the presidential election. This occurred in 1872. She was, “arrested, tried, convicted, and fined $100.” She refused to pay the fine. Supporters of The Equal Rights Amendment would march, rally, petition, and go on hunger strikes.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Figurative Art

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a long history of gender roles in society. The expectations of gender roles continually shift; however, there is not a time when women and men share the same equalities simultaneously. The idea of how men and women should act is instilled in us at a young age. I think it starts really young with girls and boys being told what they can be and when they see what they are expected to be, they abandon parts of them which society deems as undesirable. We don’t acknowledge how much pressure we put on men and women to conform to the ideas of gender roles but it is apparent in our media and in the history of our art. One of the most influential things about figurative art is that it has the ability to capture society’s concepts of how men and women are expected to be during that time period. One thing for certain about gender equality is that it has historically and predominantly been a women’s movement. This sculpture, entitled Portrait Bust of a Woman with a Scroll, stood out to me in particular. It is is made of pentelic marble and dates back to the early 5th century. The sculpture shows a woman with a restless face, clothed in a mantle and head piece while holding a scroll. This sculpture reflects the women’s intelligence and capabilities being overshadowed by her gender and

    Read More

  • Women in the Late 19th Century

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    Images of women throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have both shaped women’s outlook on their lives in the workplace, at home, and in politics, and have also encouraged change for them as individuals. While often times women are seen as weak individuals that have minor influence on society, artistic evaluations and various writings throughout history have successfully proved otherwise.

    Read More

  • A Comprehensive Summary of Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    While the girl loved the work outside she hated to do the ‘woman’s work’ inside. She disliked her mother for making her do it, and believed that her mother only made her do it be...

    Read More

  • Women Roles In The 19th Century

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women roles have changed drastically in the last 50 to 80 years, women no longer have to completely conform to society’s gender roles and now enjoy the idea of being individuals. Along with the evolution of women roles in society, women presence and acceptance have drastically grown in modern literature. In early literature it was common to see women roles as simply caretakers, wives or as background; women roles and ideas were nearly non-existent and was rather seen than heard. The belief that women were more involved in the raising of children and taking care of the household was a great theme in many early literatures; women did not get much credit for being apart of the frontier and expansion of many of the nations success until much later.

    Read More

  • Clarice Lispector

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    Traditionally, women have been subservient to men; they are still often subjugated, treated as objects, and are valued for their ability to reproduce. Since the beginning of society dating back to the Paleolithic age, in the hunter-gatherer societal system, men generally hunted and provided for the family, while the women gathered fruit and raised children at home. This brand of society has in a way persisted even until today; often women will stay at home and raise children while the man would be the one to “hunt,” or in today’s context, work and provide for the family. This puts the woman in a subordinate position as they are dependent on the man, often leading to women being treated as objects. These stereotypes contribute to the development of Lispector’s works.

    Read More

More about The Gleaners Analysis

Open Document