The Gleaners

The Gleaners

It is said history repeats itself, or at the very least echoes the past but while human behavior is range-bound circumstances have changed and may not be repeated. In the western world poverty as it was known for centuries will probably never been seen again. Interestingly, changes in technology and attitudes that have eradicated scenes like that in Jean-Francois Millet's The Gleaners have also eradicated something else.

Making its debut at the annual Salon of 1857 in Paris, the painting caused a stir among the rich and middle classes that saw it as an affront from someone enamored with Socialism. I must...