The Gleaners is the second Jean-Francois Millet inspired Needlepoint to end up in the shop and this one has some beautiful colours.
The original painting, dating to 1857 has a very solemn and overcast sky overtop of the wheat field but the colours used in this embroidered piece certainly punch up the mood beyond what is being represented.
For a bit more on that, I copy and pasted the juicy bits of the wikipedia for this piece..
Having recently come out of the French Revolution of 1848, these prosperous classes saw the painting as glorifying the lower-class worker.[1] To them, it was a reminder that French society was built upon the labor of the working masses, and landowners linked this working class with the growing movement of socialism.[2] The depiction of the working class in The Gleaners made the upper classes feel uneasy about their status. The masses of workers greatly outnumbered the members of the upper class. This disparity in numbers meant that if the lower class were to revolt, the upper class would be overturned. With the French Revolution still fresh in the minds of the upper classes, this painting was not perceived well.
A label on the back indicates this piece was framed on November 7th, 1978.
