Hello everyone, Tom Holland here and I am joined by the great Laura coming and we are looking at

painting in history, four paintings that reflect a particular period in history. We'll be looking

at the history of the painting itself, the life of the artist, and teasing out the mysteries

that shadow all four paintings. And today we will be looking at the Angelus by Jean-François

Millet, mid-19th century painting. Is it an expression of French Catholicism? Is it an expression of

French jacquemism? Could it possibly be both? That is the mystery

we will be exploring today. Hello everyone. Welcome back to our series on great paintings from history and today we have arrived at the final painting in our series.

And with me as she has been throughout our previous three episodes in this series is Laura Cumming and Laura, today's painting, we're in mid-19th century, France. What is the

painting? Who's it by? What's going on? The painting is the Angeles, painted in 1859 by Jean-Francois

who is, I always think rather amusingly he's spelt M-I-L-E-T, like Millets,

and R-M-L-L-A-I-S, and I don't know.

It's a sort of strange.

Very confusing.

It's very confusing.

I wanted us to look at this painting because it was and is still, I think, in La France Profonde,

the most famous image of devotion in French art,

but it's also, for a very long period, the most popular painting in France.

And it comes a bit like the skating minister in Scotland.

It comes to represent the French to the French.

Or a certain idea of France that is quite a controversial idea by the mid-90th century.

Now, so if you don't know the painting, let me just say, it's a small painting.

It shows us two figures who are standing stock still, heads bent in prayer, their bodies are sort of a haloed backlit by this golden evening rays across an immense field. They have been digging potatoes. You can see unearthed

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