In 1899, art critic Robert de la Sizeranne pointed out that “there is only one general tendency” to be observed “in all schools”: “the uncoordinated, almost unconscious choice of a similar theme: rural life”.
From the middle of the 19th century, with the emergence of realism and its two main figures, Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, painters with rural origins, the peasant theme spread and became a real phenomenon, transcending the movements of art. Realists, naturalists, symbolists, modern or anti-modern, all find themselves around the figure of the peasant, whether for artistic or often political purposes.
Through more than 80 works by artists as important as Courbet, Millet, Breton, Gauguin, Rodin, Van Gogh and many others, from prestigious French and international institutions, the exhibition Those of the Earth aims to apprehend the emergence of this cultural phenomenon, while approaching the intention and the own gaze of each artist behind the elaboration of the rural world as pictorial subject.