"Priory at Vauville, Normandy"

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at Millet's painting, which is more than the simple, decorative landscape it may appear to be on first examination. It shows that it is a work by an artist whose painting of rural and peasant scenes had made him successful.

From the Paper:

"The rough, contorted path, passing through a narrow gateway to the haven of the Priory which links earth to heaven can be seen as a representation of the path of the soul through earthly labors to ultimate salvation; it is also a powerful reminder of the earthy quality of ordinary peoples' lives in rural France, with the mud and stones standing for the material conditions of their lives in which they were trapped. There is thus a social criticism present in this work as well as a spiritual message. The domination of earth over sky in terms of the area of the painting it occupies would seem to underline this aspect of the painting. However the placing of the Priory and the relative brightness of the sky, the sense of space conveyed by the sea and sky in the upper portion of the painting, contrasting so sharply with the quite congested an claustrophobic atmosphere of the earthy lower portion, suggests strongly the presence of salvation and hope. In that sense the Priory stands for the enduring qualities of the human soul and its unquenchable potential for salvation. From bottom to top, the picture goes from dark to light, and from earth to heaven. It is, in the final analysis, a landscape of hope."

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