The Sheepshearers

The Sheepshearers is a painting from 1857 by Jean-François Millet, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago. The oil painting on canvas measures 0.285 meters in width and 0.412 meters in height. It depicts two people shearing a sheep. The sheep is lying on its back on top of a barrel, and the two people are standing on either side of it. The person on the left is a woman wearing a white cap and a long brown dress. She is holding the sheep's wool in her left hand and is using shears to cut it with her right hand. The person on the right is a man wearing a dark hat and a dark shirt. He is holding the sheep's legs with his left hand and is using his right hand to help the woman shear the sheep. The background of the painting is a dark brown color, and there is a fence in the background on the left side of the painting.