La Fileuse, chevrière auvergnate

La Fileuse, chevrière auvergnate — the spinner, goat-herd from the Auvergne — painted in 1869 and now in the Musée d'Orsay, depicts a young woman from the Auvergne region spinning thread while simultaneously watching her goats, an image of multitasked rural female labour specific to a different French regional tradition from the Norman or Barbizon context of most of Millet's work. The specific identification as auvergnate reflects Millet's attention to the regional varieties of French peasant culture — the Auvergne, with its volcanic uplands and distinct pastoral economy, produced a particular type of spinner-shepherdess. The painting is one of Millet's most formally refined images of female labour, the spinning motion and the watchful eye combining in a figure of simultaneous action and attention. The Musée d'Orsay's canvas was painted in the period when Millet's reputation was consolidating among French collectors, though his financial circumstances remained precarious until the final years of his life.

The figure is depicted in motion — spinning — which required Millet to suggest kinetic energy within a static medium. The spindle and thread are rendered with fine attention to their delicate physical nature, the thread a thin line of lighter tone against the warm landscape ground. The upland background is more broadly handled.