The relationship between realism and modernism is the depiction of phenomena in their natural environment while utilizing contemporary art themes to explain various attributes of a panting. In The Gleaners painting drawn on oil on canvas, the painter seeks to juxtapose the rural working-class with harvesting chores that are strenuous and reserved for the poor in the community (Brecht, 2018). The 83.5 x 110 cm dimension painting depicts three women in the foreground and sheaves of wheat in the background. Realism in the art correlates with the three women as gleaners harvesting leftover wheat for their master in what is considered a thankless task due to the physical intensity of the chores.
Jean-François Millet, The Gleaners, 1857, oil on canvas, 83.5 x 110 cm.
Modernism in the oil on canvas painting by Jean-François Millet attributes to social distance by theme and color variations in the artwork. For instance, social distance is evident by using slanting light to create a gap between the three workers and their master on horseback nearby. Modernism elements such as change of scale in the distance between the peasant life in the foreground relate with realism through abundant harvest in the background (Brecht, 2018). Manifesting two diverse social classes in a single painting alludes to modernism elements while representing the real-life and suffering of the peasants in the foreground while being supervised by a servant.
The Gleaners painting made in 1857 exhibits tedious and repetitive work of the three peasant women collecting wheat for their master, working in a hurry before sunset to fend for their families despite abundant sheaves of wheat (Brecht, 2018). The juxtaposition of wealth and peasant rural working-class is characteristic of social struggles and individual freedoms depicted in painting during 19th-century paintings and reminiscent of realism and modernism.
References
Brecht, B. (2018). Popularity and realism. In Modern Art And Modernism (pp. 227-232). Routledge.