As the meaning of the picture grows upon us, we can almost hear the
ringing of the bells. Indeed, to those familiar with such scenes in
actual life, the impression is very vivid. The friend to whom Millet
first showed his painting immediately exclaimed, "It is the Angelus."
"Then you can hear the bells," said the artist, and was content.

The solemn influence of the picture is deepened by the effects of the
twilight on the plains. A wide outlook across a level country, like
a view of the sea, is always impressive, but it has peculiar power
in the vague light which follows the sunset. Many poetic natures have
felt this mystic spell of the gloaming as it descends upon the plain.
Robert Louis Stevenson was one of these, and upon visiting Barbizon he
described vividly his feelings at such an hour. We are told also
that Millet loved to walk abroad at nightfall and note the mysterious
effects of the twilight. "It is astonishing," he once said to his
brother in such a walk, "how grand everything on the plain appears,
towards the approach of night, especially when we see the figures
thrown out against the sky. Then they look like giants."

In nearly all of Millet's pictures people are busy doing something.
Either hands or feet, and sometimes both hands and feet, are in
motion. They are pictures of action. In the Angelus, however, people
are resting from labor; it is a picture of repose. The busy hands
cease their work a moment, and the spirit rises in prayer. We have
already seen, in other pictures, how labor may be lightened by love.
Here we see labor glorified by piety.

The painting of the Angelus has had a remarkable history. The patron
for whom it was first intended was disappointed with the picture when
finished, and Millet had no little difficulty in finding a purchaser.
In the course of time it became one of the most popular works of the
painter, and is probably better known in our country than any other of
his pictures. In 1889 it was bought by an American, and was carried
on an exhibition tour through most of the large cities of the
United States. Finally it returned to France, where it is now in the
collection of M. Chauchard.

The Angelus is one of the few of Millet's works which have changed
with time. The color has grown dark and the canvas has cracked
somewhat, owing to the use of bitumen in the painting.

[Footnote 1: "Hail Mary"; see St. Luke, chapter i., verse 28.]

VIII

FILLING THE WATER-BO