Julien Dupré, French
The Hot Exercise Craze of the 1870s: Cropsfit, 1880
Oil on canvas
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THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #2274 (8/28/19)
Info, or links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// Here the Gleaners trudge home from far fields
after farmers took most of their yields.
Heavy sheaves lugged on foot
‘til they fall down kaput.
They’re too poor for a wagon that’s wheeled.
/// These glaneuses, too poor to own swine.
And no sheep, no goats, horses or kine.
They must scavenge for hay
each long back-breaking day,
not ’til night can they sit or recline.
/// The poor gleaners are carrying wheat
many miles through the stifling heat.
For the Bible has said,
“Let poor glean to be fed.
Even widows and orphans must eat.”
/// If a gleaner was lazy or “dawdly,”
the rich farmer might look at her oddly.
But he paid them no wages.
Based on Biblical sages,
this was charity, (done to feel godly).
/// In Leviticus, God had commanded
that the poor share what’s grown by the landed.
Farmer harvests his crops;
at his fields’ corners, stops—
and leaves little behind, (to be candid).
/// We can see just how badly they’re faring,
as they balance the bundles they’re bearing.
Still, they have to confess
that their feet would hurt less
were it not for those Yeezys they’re wearing.
/// They’ve got wheat, but it would have been smarter
to have gleaned something more, just to barter.
“COVID bread” can’t be made
without, (bought or by trade),
getting perfect live sourdough starter.
> or <
/// If, in wartime, your foe you would stop,
gather weapons instead of some crop.
So, for cleaning their clocks
just try gleaning their Glocks.
Take and shoot every gun that they drop.
> or <
/// On your own side you may gain renown,
(and they’ll think your opponent’s a clown).
Just set up men of straw,
with conclusions to draw,
and with ease, one-by-one, knock them down.
> or <
On the creation of crop circles:
/// They cut intricate patterns in grain,
which, some think, only E.T.’s explain.
Took cut stalks, so it seemed
that to space they’d been beamed.
Locals search for the saucers in vain.