Oct. 4 - Millet

"The Gleaners."  1857  Oil Painting

The golden color of the painting is the color of the wheat.  Each woman wears a scarf

of a different color.  These are not duchesses and princesses, but real women in

real work.  Yet their forms reflect one another like dancers on a stage.

"The Gleaners."  Charcoal Drawing.

In the drawing, the huge haystacks dominate; in the painting,

the three women dominate, their backs bent painfully as they pick up

bits of grain fallen when the men cut the wheat.  

 Jean-François Millet (October 4, 1814– January 20, 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, conte crayon drawings, and etchings.

"The Angelus." 1857

Peasants having been digging potatoes, which is extremely hard work.  The bells from

the church in the background ring out "The Angelus" and the peasants stop to pray and

to rest briefly.  It is the man and woman and their wheelbarrow which are large

and prominent and close to the front of the painting.  The church is far, far away.

"Man with a Hoe."  oil painting

He's digging peat, which is backbreaking work and endless.  You can see

some smoke from peat fires burning.  Peasants used this for heating their houses.

Only lords cold use wood from the forests.  He wears wooden clogs on his feet,

not fine soft leather. 

"Man with a Hoe."  Drawing

"Madama LeFranc."

Millet was an accomplished painter.  At times, when he and his family needed 

money, he painted society portraits, like this one.   But this type of subject

matter did not interest him; he was interested in the simple, the peasants,

the land, hard work.

"The Wheelbarrow."

"Peasants Resting."

"Planting Potatoes."

Born to modestly successful Norman peasants, Millet began studying art in Cherbourg at eighteen. In 1837 he received funding to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After ten years of mixed success while he supported himself with portraits, The Winnower appeared at the Salon of 1848 and was the first of his peasant pictures to sell. In 1849 he moved to Barbizon in Fontainebleau forest, where he lived for the rest of his life, mostly in grim poverty. There he painted his most famous works, including "The Man with a Hoe."

"Learning to Knit."

Millet observed ordinary life closely, of men, and women,

and even children.  They were all worthy of attention.

"The Winnower."

He is shaking a basket of wheat to separate the grain from the husk.

"The Sower."

The single figure is close to the front, huge, simple, powerful.

"Woman Baking Bread."

The figure is solid, weighty, and real; the forms are geometric;
the colors are the same as the hats in "The Gleaners."

Millet portrayed the gravity, hardship, and dignity of common agricultural laborers, but, despite being labeled a "Socialist revolutionary," his viewpoint was less political than fatalistic. Between 1865 and 1869, he produced over one hundred pastels, considered among his finest works. After decades of struggle, he was awarded a medal at the 1867 Exposition Universelle and received the Légion d'Honneur in 1868. Millet's humanity toward peasant life deeply impressed many painters, including Vincent Van Gogh.

"Bringing Home the New Calf."

Charcoal drawing.

"The First Steps."

Charcoal drawing and water color.

Many people find his drawings more interesting than his paintings.

"The Village Street"

Part of this later became the painting "The Wheelbarrow."

"Woman Churning Butter"

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