I recently attended a small, one-room exhibition of the art of Jean-Francois Millet. (‘Life on the Land’ is at The National Gallery, London, until 19 October.)

Born in Normandy in 1814, into a prosperous farming family, Millet helped work the fields as a child. Having studied painting in Cherbourg and Paris, in 1849 he moved to the village of Barbizon. At a time when people were deserting the country for cities and factories, he celebrated the industry and integrity of the rural peasantry.

In a gloomy barn, a winnower shakes a wide, shallow basket, to separate the wheat from the chaff. In the moonlight, a milkmaid steadies herself, as she carries a copper pitcher, secured to her shoulder by a leather strap. On a bleak hillside, a sower stumbles across a field, throwing grain from his heavy sack. Two sawyers toil in harmony, facing each other across an imposing tree trunk. A line of women stoops under their hefty loads of faggots. An exhausted goose girl rests her head on her staff, ignoring the honking birds at her feet. A barefooted shepherdess, propping herself against a tree, directs a wistful gaze towards us from under her hood.

Millet rarely used posed models, instead working from quick life sketches. Faces were not painted in detail. Character was conveyed through physicality, posture and bearing; through stretch and strain, twist and turn. These realistic, unsentimental images suggest quiet resolution, silent dignity.

The star of the show is 'The Angelus,' created in 1859. It’s sunset, and, as the Angelus bell chimes in a distant church, a husband and wife set aside their fork, cart and basket of potatoes, and stand in the fields with their heads bowed. He, in a teal jacket and clogs, has removed his black felt cap; she, wearing a blue apron and yellow headscarf, clasps her hands in prayer.

‘The idea for ‘The Angelus’ came to me because I remembered that my grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor dead, very piously and hat in hand.’

Jean-Francois Millet

Millet - THe Goose Girl at Gruchy. 1854-6

Nowadays we understandably expect employment to be challenging, fun, inspiring. We want careers where we can learn, develop and grow. And yet, at a fundamental level, work offers purpose, meaning, identity; a feeling of fulfilment as an individual, and a sense of belonging to society.

We should remember the inherent dignity of labour.

'Oh, I'm out here trying to make it,
Woman can't you see?
It takes a lot of money to make it,
Let's talk truthfully.
So keep your love light burning,
Oh, you've gotta have a little faith.
You might as well get used to me
Coming home a little late.
Oh, I got work to do
I got a job baby.
I got work to do.
I got work to do.
I'm taking care of business, woman can't you see?
I gotta make it for you, I gotta make it for me.
Don't wanna make you feel I'm neglecting you,
I'd love to spend more time,
But I got so many things to do.
Oh, I got work to do
I got work baby.
I got a job baby.
I got work to do, everybody's got work to do.’

The Isley Brothers, ‘Work To Do’ (O'kelly Isley / Ronald Isley / Rudolph Isley)

No. 535