- MILLET, Jean Francois
(1814—75)
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Painter
- Jean Francois Millet was the son of a peasant. He was trained
under a local painter at Cherbourg and then in Paris (1837) under Delaroche.
His earliest works are pastiches of the pastorals of the 18th century and rather
erotic nudes, but he also painted portraits for a time. The influence of Daumier
seems to have been decisive, and in 1848 he exhibited at the Salon a peasant
subject, The Winnower (London, NG: versions are in Paris, Louvre). From
c.1850 his choice of subject-matter led to accusations of Socialism (e.g. The
Sower, Salon of 1850). In 1849 he moved to Barbizon and remained there for
the rest of his life, living in the most gruelling poverty, painting scenes of
peasants and their labours as well as ordinary landscapes and marines. The
Angelus (1857-9: Paris, Mus. d'Orsay), though his best-known work, shows
him with an unusually sentimental approach. The meaning of the title (a midday
prayer) was so little understood in America when the picture was exhibited
there, that the title was changed to Remembering their dead child!
His works
are particularly well represented in Boston, and in America generally. There
are works in many French museums, and in Birmingham (Barber Inst.), Cardiff,
Edinburgh, Glasgow (Mus., Burrell), London (NG, V&A), Ottawa (N*G) and
Vienna.
- Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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