In class on Monday we covered Realism. The key idea of Realism was for an artist to put onto the canvas what they see in straightforward reality, thus producing a realistic rendering of the world around them. We spent a chunk of time considering Jean-François Millet’s The Sower. In his work, Millet paints things that are visible to everyone in life, producing many images of field workers and peasants. His paintings highlight the labor of the working peasant class and show the importance of their work. The colors in the painting are dark and earthy, almost carrying a grainy feel. This is something we saw in many examples of Realism.