The Goose Girl

"The Goose Girl" by Jean-François Millet is a subtle and moving example of the artist's extensive practice in printmaking, executed as a drypoint on thin wove paper sometime between 1830 and 1875. Drypoint, an intaglio technique, requires the artist to scratch the image directly onto the copper plate using a sharp tool. This process pulls up a small burr of metal along the scratched line, which holds the ink and produces the characteristic soft, velvety line quality visible throughout the composition.

Millet was internationally renowned for his evocative depictions of rural French life and labor, themes which he translated seamlessly across oil painting, pastels, and prints. Here, the artist focuses on the subject of the shepherdess, often one of the young girls or women in the agrarian hierarchy. The composition captures the quiet solitude inherent in this work, rendering the central figure with the deep empathy characteristic of Millet’s oeuvre. Unlike the dramatic weight of his monumental canvases, this small-scale print allows for an intimate engagement with the daily routines and hardships of peasant life.

Although known globally for works like The Gleaners, Millet's commitment to creating high-quality, reproducible prints was crucial to disseminating his populist subjects and political themes to a wider audience. This particular impression of The Goose Girl resides in the esteemed collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), providing a vital reference point for understanding the artist's full range of technical and thematic explorations. As an important nineteenth-century masterwork, this piece contributes significantly to the study of French Realism and the depiction of the working class.