The Wood Sawyers

The Wood Sawyers (1850-52) is one of Millet's major Barbizon paintings, depicting two peasants engaged in the physically demanding labor of sawing timber. Millet's treatment of manual labor as a subject worthy of monumental painting was revolutionary, investing the rhythmic, exhausting work of sawing with the dignity and gravity previously reserved for heroic subjects. The painting was controversial at the Salon for its sympathy toward the laboring poor.

Millet renders the sawyers with powerful, rhythmic forms that express the physical effort of their labor. The composition emphasizes the dynamic, swinging movement of the saw, creating a visual equivalent of the workers' rhythm. The earthy palette of browns and dark greens is applied with broad, sculptural brushwork.