The Wheat Sifters

Painted in 1854 and now in the Nantes Museum of Arts, this large-scale genre scene of women sifting grain was exhibited at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Courbet's own Pavilion du Réalisme alongside The Artist's Studio and The Burial at Ornans. The three women performing agricultural labor — one sifting, one sleeping, one eating — are observed from the same committed attention Courbet gave to all labor subjects, refusing to separate 'high' from 'low' subject matter. The sleeper in the background, head resting on crossed arms, was particularly noted by critics as an example of Courbet's willingness to show unglamorous physical exhaustion. The Nantes museum's holding of this major Realist canvas makes it one of the key French regional institutions for his work.

The domestic interior setting required careful management of warm, enclosed natural light — perhaps from a window at left — falling across the varied surfaces of grain, wooden implements, textile sacks, and human figures. The grain itself is a challenging still-life element, requiring Courbet to describe the behavior of loose, mobile material in a container. Each figure demonstrates a different physical state: active labor, passive eating, and deep sleep.