France and Europe in the Nineteenth century witnessed drastic changes in agricultural methods, with railroads and mechanized farm equipments altering the traditional relationship between the land those who worked it. Millet operated within this changing environment. Born into a prosperous farming family in northern France, he famously stated “Je suit paysan paysan” (I am a peasant’s peasant). With his pastels — a medium long associated with aristocratic portraiture and here applied to intimate scenes of rural life — the artist captured through incisive images the social changes occurring in the agricultural world and disappearing traditions and labor of the peasants.

In this newly-discovered pastel, Millet portrayed a moment of solitude and rest of a digger, as he’s taking a moment to observe his work of soil breaking and planting potato seeds. Millet emphasized and amplified the isolation of the single figure by setting it against the vast level landscape, sweeping into the distance behind him. The artist elevated the figure in importance but diminished his individuality in favor of a simplified composition, which embedded universal qualities of a farmer's life, seen as a modern Adam. (F.R.)