Millet

Name: Jean-François Millet

Achievements: Great French naturalist painter

Born: October 4, 1814; Gruchy, France

Died: January 20, 1875; Barbizon, France (Aged 61)

Field & Discipline: Art; Painter

Language: French

Father: Jean-Louis Nicolas Millet

Mother: Aimee-Henriette-Adelaide Henry

Siblings: Jean-Baptiste; Emelie

Spouse: 1) Pauline-Virginie Ono; 2) Catherine Lemaire

 Children: by Lemaire: Francois; Charles; Georges; Marie; Louise; Marguerite; Emilie; Jeanne; Marianne

Education: By local priest

Major Work:

"The Sower"

"The Gleaners"

Life & Times:

In 1837, with a small grant and a tiny annual pension from the Cherbourg town council, Millet went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. When it became clear he was not going to be considered for the school’s Grand Prix, Millet left.

In 1840, after a painting was rejected by the Paris Salon, Millet went back to Cherbourg and painted "Sailors Mending a Sail" and other pictures of port life.  In the same year, his "Portrait of  M. Lefranc" was accepted at the Salon.  

In the 1840s, Millet painted mostly portraits, but in 1844, he started experimenting with pastoral subjects and the female nude.  His "Milkwoman" and a pastel, "Lessons in Riding,” shown at the Salon, inspired considerable interest.

In 1845, Millet's "St Jerome" was rejected by the Salon in Paris.  Having no money for materials, he painted over it to produce "Oedipus Unbound,” also rejected.

At 31, Millet became interested in naturalism,  and,  abandoning literary references and classical allegories, most of his work was pastoral scenes and female nudes,.  His nudes were simple figures,  resting or drying themselves.  He was gaining confidence in his abilities and his brushstroke was getting stronger. 

In years to come, the line of his work would be praised by sculptor [a fan was] Rodin* and painter [a fan was] Degas*.  In this period, he painted "Golden Age,” "Bird Nesters,” "Young Girl and Lamb,” and "Bathers,” among other works.

In 1848 "The Winnower" attracted attention and was bought by the radical French lawyer, Alexandre-Auguste Ledru-Rollin, who gave Millet a commission when he heard how poor Millet was.  This enabled Millet to leave Paris and go to the village of Barbizon, outside Fontainebleu.

For the next 27 years, until he died, Millet called the three-roomed cottage in Barbizon his home.  Here he painted the peasant life around him. In 1851, Millet exhibited "The Sower,” the first picture to bring him general recognition.  He had given up his romanticism and his art became more sombre, his figures more monumental. He named his pictures plainly : "Girls Sewing,” "Man Spreading Manure,”  "The Reapers.” 

The Paris Revolution of 1848 brought the naturalist style into fashion and serious social subjects were now in vogue. Millet's large peasant figure, "The Sower,”  was just what the times called for: the common man was the new hero. Although social change was seen more in the urban-industrial world, it was the peasant who came to symbolise the new truths.

(In 1899, after Millet's death, American poet [inspired] Edwin Markham*,  inspired by "The Sower,” wrote a poem[‘Man with a Hoe’] in which the French peasant is seen as a symbol of the oppressed)

In 1853, a young Bostonian artist, W.M. Hunt, bought some of Millet's pictures.  Another Bostonian, Martin Brimmed, bought the "Harvesters.” Through these men, Millet made contacts with other Boston artists and collectors, and Millet's finances improved.  In 1855, Millet won a minor award for "Peasant Grafting a Tree.”  It got mixed reviews from critics.

In 1857, at 43, Millet painted "The Gleaners,” now one of his most famous paintings and the last in a series of "gleaner" pictures.  The painting is overtly political.  It shows three women gleaners, with rich farmland behind them, clearly gleaning only what has been left behind after the harvest has been taken.  The painting offended the middle classes and the government, which had been claiming it was eradicating rural poverty.

By 1860, more and more dealers and collectors were interested in Millet's work and he no longer had to rely on the Salon to exhibit. His work was shown in Brussels in 1860 and 1863 and at several galleries in Paris. Among the works of this period were "Sheep Shearing,” "Woman Shearing Sheep,” "Woman Feeding Child,” "Potato Planters,” and "Winter and the Crows,” "Man with Hoe,” "Woman Carding,” "Shepherds and Flock, Peasants Bringing Home a Calf Born in the Fields.”

In 1866, Millet showed a major landscape at the Salon for the first time. For the next two years he spent time in the Vichy region, where he drew and painted in water colors. In 1867, he received a First Class Exhibition medal and the Legion of Honor. 

In 1870, Millet went to Normandy to escape the miseries of the Franco-Prussian War.  He painted landscapes almost exclusively, but Millet's art from this period has never achieved much esteem. 

In the last three years of his life, Millet's output was vast. His figures showed an even more primitive aspect and his composition was more experimental. 

Extra Connections: Influenced [influenced] Van Gogh* , [influenced] Pissarro* and [influenced] Dali*

Was a “Realist” with [fellow-Realist with] Whistler*  and  [fellow-Realist with] Courbet*

Assessment: Millet's peasant art was part of the naturalist movement in art.

Oneliner: J-F Millet, great French naturalist painter

Bibliography:

• Jean-Francois Millet, Exhibition Catalogue, text by Robert Herbert, Arts.