Bring your favorites together in your free personal gallery.
Your galleryThe Keeper of the Flock
Look first
- What catches your attention?
- Where does your eye go next?
- What would you ask about this work?
Show me
Compare the solitary upright figure with the low, spreading line of sheep, then notice the bright sky opening behind the head.
Millet sets the keeper apart from the flock through a simple contrast of shapes: one vertical body rises above animals spread across the slope. The foreground remains dark while the sky gathers light. That arrangement gives an ordinary act of watching over sheep a still, concentrated presence.
Oil on canvas · 71.7 × 91.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Barbizon School
Look again
What do you notice now?
Try a quick sketch
Take a minute to sketch on any paper. No upload needed.
What did you draw first? What did you leave out?
Details and source
- Museum title
- The Keeper of the Flock
- Artist
- Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
- Date
- 1871–74
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 71.7 × 91.5 cm (28 × 36 in.); Framed: 105.5 × 125.1 × 14 cm (41 1/2 × 49 1/4 × 5 1/2 in.)
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.