Influences of Seurat
Throughout the early stages of Seurat’s career, many French artists influenced both his style and technique in drawing and painting. While at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, both Delacroix and Ingres strongly influenced the way in which he painted and drew. The early 1880’s saw influences such as Redon, Rembrandt, and Courbet, but none had a stronger impact on Seurat’s style during the time then Millet. During the years 1880 to 1883, Seurat paid particular attention to the peasant farm worker. The way in which he depicted each worker was very unique, but at the same time showed similarities to art works Millet had done. As Herbert puts it, Millet was the “peasant master” (Herbert 64), and Seurat took note of his abilities when painting rural subjects. Resemblances can be found in many of each others works.
By taking a look at both Millet’s The Gleaners, and Seurat’s Working Peasant Woman, the parallels can be seen almost immediately.
Both subjects are almost identical, a woman or women placed in the center of the canvas in a bent down position. While the clothing in Seurat’s is not drawn in detail, the ragged skirt with a simple whit shirt and hat resemble that of the clothing worn by the women in Millet’s drawing.
Although each picture has similarities, there are also many differences present. Within Millet’s depiction, a greater focus is found on the background than on the actual women. Because of Millet’s history as a landscape artist from the Barbizon school, it is easy to conclude that his main focus in the painting was the farm and not the women. On the other hand, Seurat chose to disregard all other details other than the woman in his drawing. No landscape is present and the woman is drawn to take up the entire canvas. Also, the job each woman performs is different. While each does work, the detail shown in Millet’s work allows the viewer to better understand their place in society. Unlike Millet’s, Seurat’s woman is different for as Thomson states in his study Seurat, “their task is shown, but their position in society is not investigated” (Thomson 60). Without the detail in the background, this woman could be peasant or bourgeoisie woman in her garden. Social position is not clear within this drawing unlike it is in Millet’s.
Like The Gleaners and Working Peasant Woman, Millet and Seurat share another two paintings which parallel each other even more, Twilight and Peasants in a Field. The similarities between these two go beyond just position, but also style. 
In each, both Millet and Seurat use shading and shadows in order to depict the night scene. Seurat, using Millet painting to create his own, formatted his drawing in the same manner as Millet. 
Two peasants stand in the foreground in front of a night sky. While the two share this similarity, the two artists diverge at this point. Instead of having these two figures doing the work, Seurat instead has them observing the peasant and the carriage. Seurat does not show a “visual sigh for the labor of simple people” as Millet does by placing the focus on the simple people working (Zimmerman 65). Instead, Seurat depicts each figure in a very objective way and this can be seen through his style of using silhouettes instead of placing any sort of detail in the figure. Herbert describes the difference between the artists rendering of figures faces well when he states that “instead of Millet’s ‘typical faces’, Seurat painted ‘facelessness’” (Herbert 78). The “facelessness” that accompanies Seurat’s figures creates this objective sense of the figures and also states that Seurat did not feel any sort of sympathy for the worker as Millet most likely did through these paintings.