Admiring "The Angelus"

One of eleven works by Millet on display at the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. The exhibition is called Jean-François Millet : Under Investigation, and runs until 6 January 2013. 45 mins is all you need to take in the information panels and the short film explaining the research techniques.

The label reads :
The Angelus, about 1865
Jean-François Millet
Pastel on Paper

In rural France, church bells rang three times a day to call people to recite the Angelus prayer, recalling the moment when the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her she would conceive the Son of God.

The way in which Millet has painted the light, hitting the top of the fork and the woman's hands, suggests it is the evening prayer which is being said. This pastel is a re-working of Millet's painting of 1857-59, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.


Once home, I googled the Angelus Prayer and here it is :-
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

F