THE ANGELUS
Questions to arouse interest. In what attitude are these peasants standing? What have they been doing? With what have they been working? What can you see in the background? From what direction does the light come? What time of day do you think it is? in what country? Why have they stopped their work? Who of you can tell what the Angelus is? What feeling does this picture give you—one of sadness, peace, quiet, noise prosperity, poverty, or happiness?
Original Picture: Collection Chauchard, Paris.
Artist: Jean François Millet (mē´lĕ).
Birthplace: Gruchy, France.
Dates: Born, 1814; died, 1875.
The story of the picture. Although our print is only black and white, we are made to feel the brightness of the sunset in this picture. The horizon, veiled in a haze, shows the church tower of the distant village faintly silhouetted against the sky, while the sinking sun casts its long shadows across the field. But our eyes do not dwell long on sky, church, or field, for the two figures draw our gaze. The bright rays from the setting sun fall directly upon the woman, who faces the west; the man, turning toward her, is partly in shadow.
No doubt these two peasants have been working in the fields, the man digging potatoes, as we may judge by those in the basket and the two well-filled bags on the wheelbarrow. As he digs them, the woman gathers them up in her basket and empties them into the sacks. Thus busily engaged, they suddenly hear the church bell; its great tone coming far across the field reminds them that it is the hour of prayer. So putting down the pitchfork and basket, they stand with bowed heads as they repeat the evening prayer.
The artist wished to paint a picture that would make us hear the bell sounding clearly across the deep stillness of the open field. He wished to make us feel, as do these peasants, the quiet solemnity of the hour.
Even as a little boy Millet was greatly impressed by the sound of the Angelus, or bell for prayers, which was rung each morning, noon, and night. One of his earliest remembrances was of a time when the villagers bought new bells for the church, and he went with his mother and a neighbor to see them before they were hung. It seems that two of the old bells had been used to make a cannon, the third was broken, and these new bells were in the church waiting to be baptized before they could be hung in the tower. They seemed immense to the small boy, and of course they must have been larger than he. Millet tells of the delight and awe he felt when the neighbor struck the bells with the great key to the church door, which she carried in her hand.