Stories Pictures Tell Volume IV Part 1

Stories Pictures Tell.

by Flora L. Carpenter.

Book 4.

THE PREFACE

Art supervisors in the public schools a.s.sign picture-study work in each grade, recommending the study of certain pictures by well-known masters. As Supervisor of Drawing I found that the children enjoyed this work but that the teachers felt incompetent to conduct the lessons as they lacked time to look up the subject and to gather adequate material. Recourse to a great many books was necessary and often while much information could usually be found about the artist, very little was available about his pictures.

Hence I began collecting information about the pictures and preparing the lessons for the teachers just as I would give them myself to pupils of their grade.

My plan does not include many pictures during the year, as this is to be only a part of the art work and is not intended to take the place of drawing.

The lessons in this grade may be used for the usual drawing period of from twenty to thirty minutes, and have been successfully given in that time. However, the most satisfactory way of using the books is as supplementary readers, thus permitting each child to study the pictures and read the stories himself.

FLORA L. CARPENTER

[Ill.u.s.tration: By permission of Braun & Co., Paris and New York

THE SOWER]

STORIES PICTURES TELL

THE SOWER

=Questions to arouse interest.= What is this man doing? Why do you think so? What does he carry over his shoulder? in his bag? How does he sow the grain? What will be the result of his work? How do you think the grain will be covered? What can you see in the background? Do you think the oxen are plowing the field or covering the grain? why? What time of the day is it? What can you see in this picture to indicate that the man has been working a long time? How is he dressed? How does he wear his hat? What kind of boots is he wearing? What makes you think the ground is soft? Is the man standing still, or walking? Why do you think so?

Where does he seem to be looking? Why do you think he looks ahead? What is the cause of the glow in the sky behind him? What do you think are the colors in the sky? the colors in the field? What time of the year is it? in what country? What do you like best about this picture?

=Original Picture:= Vanderbilt Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York.

=Artist:= Jean Francois Millet (m[=e]'l[)e]'').

=Birthplace:= Gruchy, France.

=Dates:= Born, 1814; died, 1875.

=The story of the picture.= In this picture Millet has tried to tell us only a few important facts about the man and his work. It is easy to see that he is sowing grain broadcast over the field. The shadows creeping over ground and sky tell us that night is fast approaching.

He seems intent upon finis.h.i.+ng that last stretch of field before dark, and his steady, rhythmic swing shows none of the physical weariness he must feel.

When we think of the life of this st.u.r.dy French peasant, as the artist surely intended we should, we realize the patience and perseverance required in the monotonous day's work, and we are forced to a feeling of respect and admiration for him.

In these days with what ease and skill the same task is performed by the aid of machinery! Riding on the seat of a machine which drills the seed into the ground and covers it up, the man would have found the simple task of guiding his horses a very pleasant one indeed. As he walks along so energetically, his eyes are probably fixed on some stake at the end of the field to guide him as he travels back and forth, sowing the grain.

No doubt he used a team of oxen to plow and harrow the ground before he sowed the seed. We have no way of knowing just what kind of a harrow he had, but very likely it was one made of brush or branches of trees. We can see a team of oxen and a driver in the distance, who seem to be following in the tracks of our sower and covering up the seeds he is sowing.

The artist, Millet, knew all about such work, for he himself had worked out in the fields through the long day. He tells us that his "ancestors were peasants and he was born a peasant."

No doubt the man in our picture started out on his day's work long before the sun was up. His first task, after eating his breakfast and feeding his oxen, was to yoke the oxen ready for the journey to the field where their work was to be done. No doubt the man has been working steadily ever since, for he does not look like a man who would stop to rest very many times. He gives us rather a feeling of physical strength and of steady, faithful effort in the accomplishment of his daily tasks.

At the close of such a day's labor in the field he will be too utterly weary to sit up and read, as most of our farmers do during these days of farm machinery and rural delivery. And yet, there were some who did read even in those days when work was so difficult, for we know that Millet sat up many nights with the village priest, who taught him reading and arithmetic, and with whom he studied Latin and read the works of Shakespeare. It was due to this greater knowledge that Millet became something more than a mere peasant. It was this that gave him such perfect sympathy with and keen insight into the peasants' lives.

His own knowledge of the world made him more conscious of the great contrast between their narrow, hard-working lives so full of privation, and those of the men and women in the great world outside so full of opportunity and promise. Yet even in so great a city as Paris, men could starve, as he had found out by his own experience.

Perhaps Millet wished to make us feel the content of a successful day's work such as this, with its well-earned quiet and rest, free from the hurry and noise of the city. Although the sun is sinking over a world of beauty and pleasure, our sower knows nothing and cares for nothing except the accomplishment of his task. His hat, pulled down over his face, shades his heavy, coa.r.s.e features. Although an expert in his work, doing to the utmost, his mind is probably dull and slow and quite unequal to any great mental task. And yet what a great work is his, after all! How dependent we are upon the men of whom he is a type! The fact that he is doing his own work and doing that work well compels our respect and admiration.

The light from the sun disappearing behind the hill brings out in silhouette the figure of the sower turned toward the dark and earthy field. This man is not posing for his picture. Quite unconscious of our gaze, he swings briskly forward, his feet sinking slightly into the newly plowed field. From the bag hanging from his shoulder he scatters the grain with a long sweep of his strong right arm.

He is actually moving in the picture. Take this position for yourself.

The weight of the body falls evenly upon both feet. To raise either foot you must move the entire body. As the right foot goes forward the right arm goes back. If you try taking long strides and swinging your arms you will find this is the natural movement.

The horizon line is slanting or diagonal, and divides the light part of the picture from the dark. The sky and ground are held together by the figure of the sower. Notice the absence of details in the picture.

The art critics of Millet's day did not appreciate the great thought expressed in this picture, for nearly all of them found fault with it.

They could see no beauty in "a common laborer in his dirty clothes doing his miserable work," and thought Millet should have chosen something more beautiful to paint. What do you think of the justice of this criticism? What is your opinion of the beauty of this picture?

Millet loved these simple, kind-hearted, hard-working peasants, loved their lives of toil in the fields, respected their labors, and being so wholly in sympathy with them, he wished to make us feel so, too.

=Questions to help the pupil understand the picture.= Where is the man?

in what country? How can you tell what time of the day it is? Why does he not seem weary? Why do you think he must be very tired? How early do the French peasants usually start to work? What must this man do before daybreak? Why do you think he is not lazy? Why do we respect and admire him? How could his work be made easier now? How do most of our farmers sow and plant their seed? How did this man plow his ground? What is a harrow for? What kind of a harrow did this man have? What is the team of oxen at the farther end of the field doing? Does this man seem to be looking at the ground or far ahead? How did the artist, Millet, know so much about this kind of work? What would this man probably do after his day's work? Why did he not read the newspaper, as our farmers do? What did Millet do in the evening? How did this help him? What did Millet wish to make us feel in this picture? How does the horizon line divide the picture? How are the sky and ground held together? Why do you suppose Millet did not paint details, such as the features of the face or the b.u.t.tons on the coat? What did the critics say about this picture?

How many agree with them? why? why not?

=To the Teacher:= Ask one of the pupils to take this position while the others sketch the action, finis.h.i.+ng the sketch from memory--and adding their own background. Use ink silhouette, or charcoal on manila paper.

=The story of the artist.= Jean Francois Millet was the son of poor French peasants who lived on a farm and worked hard to take care of their large family of eight children. Jean was the eldest boy. The father was very fond of music and of all beautiful things out of doors, and often he would say to his son, "Look at that tree, how large and beautiful! It is as beautiful as a flower." He would call the boy's attention to the beauty of the fields, the sunsets, and all things around them.

Millet's mother worked out in the fields with the father all day long, so it was the grandmother who took care of the little boy. It was she who named him Jean after his father, and Francois after the good Saint Francis. She was a deeply religious woman, and nearly all the pictures Millet saw when a boy were those in her Bible. He copied these pictures many times, drawing them with white chalk on the stone walls of the house. This pleased his grandmother very much, and she encouraged him all she could.

At the age of six he was sent to school. When he was twelve years old, the priest of the village became interested in him and offered to teach him Latin. Millet was only too glad to accept this offer, and many a happy evening the two spent thus together. But his studies were frequently interrupted by his work on the farm, for since he was the eldest son his father depended most upon him. It was the custom in France among the peasants to take a daily hour of rest from their labors. But the boy Millet, instead of sleeping, spent the hour in drawing the homely scenes around him.

One Sunday morning, coming home from church, Millet met an old man who walked very slowly, his back bent over a cane. We have all seen just such old men, and their feebleness has aroused our sympathy and respect. It is not strange, then, that something about this bent figure appealed to young Millet so strongly that he could not resist the desire to draw a portrait of the man.

He drew the portrait on a stone wall, with a piece of charcoal, and so well that people pa.s.sing on their way home from church recognized it at once and were very much surprised and pleased. His father, perhaps, was the most delighted of all, for once he himself had wished to be an artist. Now he determined that his son should have the chance.

We are sure Millet never forgot that day when the father, mother, grandmother, and his brothers and sisters sat around the table after dinner and talked about his wonderful picture and what they could do to help him become a great painter. And when it was finally decided that his father should take him to the artist (Mouchel) in the next village, you may be sure he worked hard on the drawings he was to take with him. At last the day came for the journey, and the proud father and his happy son set out on foot for the home of the artist.

When shown the drawings Mouchel at first refused to believe the boy had made them, they were so good. Finally convinced, he was glad indeed to take Millet as one of his pupils. But Millet studied with him only two months when his father died and he was obliged to return home to take his father's place on the farm as best he could.

By this time the people of the village had become so much interested in his paintings that they decided to help him. So they raised a large sum of money, sent him back to the artist to study, and finally sent him to the great city of Paris, France. But although he painted wonderful pictures which are worth thousands of dollars to-day, his style of art was not appreciated then and would not sell, and he was glad to paint portraits for a few francs each in order to make a living. His life in Paris was a continuous struggle with poverty, and at last he decided to leave. With his wife and children he settled in a little three-roomed cottage at Barbizon, a tiny little village near a great forest and only a day's journey from Paris.

Here was Millet's home all the rest of his life. Although still very poor, the family did not starve, as they came so near doing while they lived in Paris, for the garden and the fruit trees always provided them with something to eat.