Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875). At the outset of his career, he refused the stereotyped concept of painting and became a free portrait painter. He influenced Impressionists through his selection of topics: he painted simple people, poor farmers and the humility of hardworking people. He loved the countryside where he lived, devoted a lot of energy for rural people. Millet’s paintings are characterized by an interesting, gold and melancholy light that gives his landscapes a religious character. The Angelus - church bells in the distance strike as two people say a prayer of thanks for the harvest (ironically, the Louvre auctioned this painting for an astronomical sum). Gleaners. The monumentality of characters achieved through simplification of the environment (which was later used by Seurat) is clamped from above by the horizon. The image probably expresses the oppression of peasants (especially women without voting rights) after 1848.