L'Ile aux Moines with Workers in a Field c. 1858

Eugène Boudin made this pencil drawing, L’Ile aux Moines with Workers in a Field. It depicts agricultural laborers at work in a rural landscape. The image’s meaning is generated through visual and historical associations. France in the 19th century was a society undergoing rapid change, with urbanization and industrialization altering traditional ways of life. The scene is one of rural labor which would have been very familiar to French people at the time. Boudin has carefully included laborers in the fields: at the forefront, a farmer ploughs the land; further away, workers are bent over in what may be the task of sowing seeds. These workers represent France's reliance on the agricultural sector. The church steeple in the background and placement of the workers in the fields creates a visual hierarchy and may be a comment on the conservative social structures of the time. To fully understand a drawing like this, one might research 19th-century French agricultural practices or the role of the church in rural communities. Art provides us with a window onto the social conditions of its time.