Seaweed Gatherers

Edward Mitchell Bannister, born St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1828-died Providence, RI 1901 · 1898?

This scene of a worker pushing his wheelbarrow is similar to the paintings of French artist Jean-François Millet, whose landscapes celebrated rural scenes and the nobility of peasant life. Edward Bannister praised Millet as “the profoundest, most sympathetic, and deeply religious artistic spirit of our time.” (Hartigan, Sharing Traditions, 1985). Millet’s scenes of peasant life commented on industrialization by showing hardworking country folk, who embodied the moral values that were swiftly fading from urban centers. In Seaweed Gatherers, Bannister positioned his worker in the center of the composition so that he and his cart take on monumental proportions, heightening the viewer’s identification with him.