Art Collections Online
Winter - The Faggot Gatherers
MILLET, Jean-François (1814 - 1875)
Date: 1868-75
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 82.0 x 100.0 cm
Acquired: 1952; Bequest; Gwendoline Davies
Accession Number: NMW A 2478
Collection: The Davies Sisters Collection
This stark image of rural hardship depicts three heavily laden women returning in the darkness from collecting firewood. The subject is one which Millet revisited in sketches over the course of several years. This painting, however, remained unfinished. It is possible that it represented ‘Winter’ in a group of the four seasons. Millet painted over a female portrait which is partly visible on the right.
Comments - (2)
A faggot or fagot is a bundle of sticks or branches, usually meant for use as firewood. It derives through the Old French fagot and the Italian diminutive fagotto from the Latin Fasces ("bundle", also the origin of the word Fascism), coming into Middle English no later than 1279.