The Angelus
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
About this painting
Two peasants stop mid-harvest, hands clasped, heads bowed: the gesture is the whole subject. It is the Angelus, the prayer marking the Angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary, cued by the church steeple risen behind them. Pitchfork, sacks, and wheelbarrow lie scattered where the work stopped; devotion interrupts labor rather than replacing it.
Millet said the idea came from his grandmother, who always made the family stop work to say the Angelus. The canvas was commissioned around 1857 by the American Thomas Gold Appleton, who never took delivery of it.
Sources: Paused posture (hands clasped, heads bowed, tools set down) as the Angelus prayer, and Millet's own quote about his grandmother · Commission history: Thomas Gold Appleton (American) ordered the canvas but never took delivery; Millet reworked it · Base Joconde, notice 000PE002013, 'L'angélus', Jean-François Millet, Paris, musée d'Orsay, RF 1877 — Plateforme Ouverte du Patrimoine, Ministère de la Culture (France)
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 7,053 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.