Gleaning has Biblical origins, to let the poor get their own free supply of grain. Was it confined to the poorest, and did it remain a right, later in Europe?
Brendekilde
Stone-picking to improve the soil. A series of paintings of the Sower, broadcasting seed by hand. Weeding the fields to help the crop grow.
Paintings of gardeners by Bazille, Sisley, Caillebotte, Pissarro, Grant Wood and others.
Landscape paintings by Daubigny, Sisley, Berkos, Astrup, Pissarro, Julian Onderdonk, Granville Redmond, Théo van Rysselberghe and others.
How the tradition of Christmas trees is relatively recent, family scenes of celebrating the day before Christmas, and how it also became a day to remember the poor and others less fortunate.
The Corydon Shepherd, those attending the Nativity, the Good Shepherd, Poussin’s flocks, Millet’s social realism, and Pissarro’s epitaphs.
Hands are rarely covered in paintings. Examples include outdoors in winter, armoured gloves for crossbows, a sommelier, and fashion.
In Rome, in search of the temple of Aesculapius, and in the Gardens of the Villa Borghese, with Corot, Velázquez, Valenciennes, and others.
Félix Vallotton, George Clausen, George Bellows, and others, including two unusual paintings of Iceland’s volcanoes.
Barefoot and sometimes surprising, as Christ washes the disciples’ feet, and other feet are missing altogether. Barefoot means poverty too.
The Eclectic Light Company 