Man Resting on a Spade

Man Resting on a Spade is a powerful woodcut created by Jean-François Millet in 1874. This profound late work, executed on thin laid paper, belongs to the significant body of prints produced by the artist, showing his continued commitment to the graphic arts in the final years of his career.

Millet, renowned throughout his career for his empathetic depictions of peasant life and rural labor, focuses here on a solitary male figure. The composition captures a moment of intense, weary pause; the man leans heavily on his oversized spade, suggesting the constant physical demands of agricultural work. The deliberate coarseness of the woodcut medium perfectly complements the subject, utilizing bold lines and stark contrasts to emphasize texture and shadow, lending a somber, weighty presence to the laborer.

The artist avoids sentimentalizing the scene, instead providing an honest observation of the working class, a theme that positioned Millet centrally within the naturalism and realism movements of 19th-century French art. As the only state of this particular image, the print offers direct insight into the final visual intention of the master printmaker.

This important graphic work, illustrating one of Millet’s classic subjects, is held in the extensive collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Because of the artist's historical stature and the age of the print, this iconic image, along with other key Millet works focusing on men in agricultural settings, is frequently made available through public domain initiatives, ensuring widespread accessibility to the work of this influential master.