Description
Calling the Cows Home sets a cowherd lifting his hand against an orange dusk sky, with cattle silhouetted nearby and a large cow facing the viewer in the left foreground. Millet identifies the action as sounding a horn to gather the animals at day’s end. The scattered presences give the call a landscape across which it can carry.
Painted about 1872 in oil on wood, the work returns to a subject Millet had explored in an earlier charcoal drawing and pastel. In a letter from August of that year, he described the cowherd’s task, confirming the action identified by the title. The repeated theme gives the painting a place within a longer process of looking and working. Its appeal lies in turning a brief signal across the countryside into a sustained image of daily life.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Jean-François Millet collection.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.