The Weeders (Jules Breton)

The Weeders is an oil on canvas painting by Jules Breton, from 1868. It depicts a group of peasant women working the fields of Northern France. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

Description
Originally a painter of historical scenes, Jules Breton began to shift with time his focus away from historicity to agrarian scenes. One of the paintings produced as a result of this new focus was The Weeders, which Breton painted after observing a group of farmers in his home town of Courrières picking over a field to clear away weeds and thistle.