Digger Leaning on His Spade

Jean-François Millet, who struggled to support his large family, began producing etchings in the mid-1850s to earn income and help spread his name among potential buyers. His prints of rural French life appealed to the middle-class belief in the moral beauty of labor. Jules Bastien-Lepage’s poetic scenes, inspired by his memories of growing up on a farm, were also popular among city dwellers who yearned for the open air and simple pleasures depicted in his images. These timeless depictions of peasants fulfilling traditional roles were reassuring to the bourgeoisie, particularly when the class struggles and violent peasant uprisings of 1848 were still fresh in the public mind.