Millet was never able to understand the declamatory meanings attributed to him by his critics. Nothing, however, was farther from Millet's mind: he detested sentimental and melodramatic painting he was indifferent to politics he repudiated socialism. All of them look for political and social theses in his pictures or else for вЂ‹dramatic effects. The gesture of the Sower appeared to be a threat of the populace, casting to heaven 'handfuls of grape-shot.' The Gleaners were called by Paul de St Victor 'the three Fates of Pauperism.' Baudelaire and Huysmans attribute to his peasants the souls of revolutionary orators. Criticism saw political allusions in all his works. The latter regarded him as a declaiming socialist who set before the dominating middle classes a melodramatic picture of the suffering workers. The former hailed him as the bold and truthful interpreter of the new democracy. He was equally misunderstood by his admirers and his detractors. In French art he is a solitary, almost an alien. He seems to be a man belonging to another time, another race, a different form of thought. вЂ‹ The personality of Millet is a surprising one in the France of the nineteenth century.

Romain rolland motto