A Woman Emptying a Bucket

A Woman Emptying a Bucket is a poignant print created by Jean-François Millet between 1862 and 1863. Millet, one of the leading figures of the Barbizon school in France, dedicated his career to portraying the lives of the rural peasantry with dignity and unvarnished realism. This work is classified as a print, specifically utilizing the unique photographic technique known as cliché-verre. Developed in France in the 1850s, the cliché-verre process involves scratching or drawing into a glass plate coated with collodion, which is then exposed onto light-sensitive paper, resulting in prints that possess the delicate tonality of a drawing combined with the reproducible quality of early photography.

The subject matter centers on the commonplace, yet often arduous, tasks of rural life. The figure, a sturdy farm woman or laundress, stands in an obscured setting, captured mid-action as she pours water from a heavy bucket. Millet’s masterful handling of light and shadow emphasizes the effort required for the labor and the solitary nature of the task. While the image is simple in composition, it carries the weight of 19th-century realism, reflecting Millet’s lifelong commitment to elevating agricultural laborers from mere genre subjects to heroic, foundational figures of French society.

This piece demonstrates Millet's versatile mastery across media beyond his well-known oil paintings. The finished work, A Woman Emptying a Bucket, resides in the permanent collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. As a celebrated example of 19th-century French prints, this culturally significant artwork is sometimes made available for educational purposes through public domain initiatives, ensuring the reach of Millet's influential realism.