Jean-Francois Millet: The Wood Sawyers
This is a very dynamic image: the bodies of the workers are sharply bent towards different, sometimes opposing directions, creating a swirling rhythm that dominates the scene completely. Labor — the activity of logging — becomes the protagonist; faces are covered to let the bodily movements speak. The three men form a triangle that serves as an abstract geometrical formula for the sweaty dance they perform. Every part of the body engages in the process. The leg muscles of the central figure are bulging, the shoulders and the back of the man on the left are fully engaged and the torso of the farthest logger is strained to the maximum. The giant trees further emphasize the energy involved in their cutting; they are formidable opponents and give in slowly and without the enthusiasm of the men. The monumental struggle between the two sides reveals the hardships of this livelihood, but also marks it as aesthetically and symbolically meaningful. A sense of pride and self-respect hovers above these hard workers.
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Millet’s compositions tend to seem frozen and sculptural — and this one is no exception, though the broad movements unfreeze it a little. There is a certain clash between the visual dynamics and this underlying immobility. I think that this is the result of the artist’s inability to synthesize the people he depicts with their surroundings — this may sound contradictory to what I’ve said in the previous paragraph, but the trees cannot really be categorized as the “surroundings,” rather, they are more of a continuation of the men’s actions. The ground and the rest of the forest, however, seem alien to the live figures, as if taking the role of a pedestal or a cast background. It is difficult for me to identify what exactly interferes with the synthesis, but it seems that it’s the artist’s peculiar treatment of line to blame — this time for a shortcoming evident on the macro rather than an excess visible on the micro level.
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Yet despite all these, I prefer this painting to many of Millet’s others. Eventually, environment is less important here; the workers are still the center of attention, and their figures create a strong sense of unity and interconnectedness — they compliment each other and induce an atmosphere of community and sharing. In other words, the pictorial elements of harmonious continuation link to the meta-theme of communal existence. The sentimentalism is almost all but gone: there is simply no time and place for it. I can imagine it surfacing after the working hours, or on the way to the location, but not during the work itself. Additionally, even though there are few colors, the blue and red of the clothing may seem superfluous. This painting resembles an etching so much that colors may be omitted altogether. Perhaps in an etching it would have been possible to attain that long wished for synthesis.
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