A monumentalizing portrayal of a peasant bowed over by brutal toil, "Man with a Hoe" (ca. 186062) by Jean-Franēois Millet (18141875) is arguably the most art historically significant painting in the J. Paul Getty Museums collection of nineteenth-century European art. This volume situates the painting in the arc of Millets career and traces its fascinating and contentious reception, from its scandalous debut at the 1863 Paris Salon to the years following its acquisition by American collectors in the 1890s.
The essays examine the paintings tumultuous public life, beginning in France, where critics attacked it on aesthetic and political grounds as a radical realist provocation; through its transformative movement in the art market during the remaining years of the artists life and following his death; to its highly publicized arrival in California as a celebrated masterpiece.
In the United States it was enlisted to serve philanthropic interests, became the subject of a popular poem, and once again became embroiled in controversy, in this case one that was strongly inflected by American racial politics. This is the first publication dedicated to the work since its acquisition by the Getty Museum in 1985
Foreword - Timothy Potts
Acknowledgments
Introduction - Scott Allan
The Epic of Labor: Millets Man with a Hoe at the 1863 Salon - Simon Kelly
From Toxic Asset to Trophy Picture: The Fortunes of Man with a Hoe,
18631890 - Scott Allan
Westward Hoe!: Evolution, Eugenics, and the Reception of Millet in the
United States - John Ott
References Cited
Illustration Credits
Index
Scott Allan is curator in the Department of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum. His books include Reconsidering Jean-Léon Gérōme (Getty, 2010), Unruly Nature: The Landscapes of Théodore Rousseau (Getty, 2016), and Manet and Modern Beauty: The Artist's Last Years (Getty and Art Institute of Chicago, 2019).
