in the midst of the 1800's there was a flap of failed popular revolutions all throughout Europe, and in the aftermath of their failure the biedemeirer movement of art rose in response. This art (and furniture and literary) movement focused on the bourgeoisie comfort and middle class family as a subject matter and encouraged a turning inward,, its reminiscent to the cottage core aesthetic a lot of people turned to during the 2020 uprisings

Some classic examples

okay those are not my favorite paintings, just context.

so while this art movement is in full swing Jean-François Millet paints and shows this

very much so in conversation with the fantasy of agricultural leisure of the wider movement, depicting the poorest of these communities with the same language as other artists were using to depict the people who caused these women to need to resort to gleaning. people haaaated this painting and its one of my favorites.

if I can share one more paintings, fifteen years later Gustave Caillebotte cited this as inspiration for his painting The Floor Planners which critics at the time referred to as anti-art lol

anyways. I just love laborers getting to be painted with such beauty and care at a time where culture was violently trying to disregard their existence. I didn't have much energy to write out everything so I really recommend looking up more about these artists as there's a lot more there