Jean-Francois MILLET
French 1814-1875
Susanna and the Elders
oil on canvas
55.8 x 46.7 cm
Felton Bequest 1921
1113-3

Millet's 'Susanna and the Elders' is not the traditional representation of a maiden who is spied upon by old men while she bathes, but instead shows a young woman subjected to a violent sexual attack. It is a highly confronting reading of the story that is told in The Apocrypha.
After Millet moved from Paris to Barbizon in 1849, he abandoned Biblical and historic subjects for paintings of peasant life like 'The Angelus and The Gleaners'.