Jean François Millet biography

Dromo's Den

Jean Millet Biography

MILLET, mē'lā', Jean François (1814–75). A French genre and landscape painter of the Barbizon group, the greatest of all peasant painters. He was born at Gruchy, near Gréville (Manche), Oct. 4, 1814, the eldest son of a Norman peasant. His father, who exercised a great influence upon Millet’s life and character, was a man of refined and deeply religious nature and of musical tastes, being cantor in the village church. Under the tuition of the village priest he received an elementary education, even mastering Greek, but his early years he spent on the farm, trying, during hours of rest, to draw the familiar scenery and life about him. His father took him to the neighboring town of Cherbourg, where he studied under Mouchel, a pupil of the school of David, and Langlois. In 1837, aided by a small gift of money from the council general of the department and by a small pension granted by the town council of Cherbourg, Millet went to Paris. He entered the studio of Delaroche, but, unable to endure his master's conventional methods, and constrained by poverty, he soon withdrew. With Marolle, a friend, he opened a little studio, giving his evenings to study and his days to painting cheap portraits and pastel imitations of Boucher and Watteau. He won some recognition with a portrait in the Salon of 1840, but soon returned to Normandy, where he married (1841). There he supported himself by painting signboards, and also produced "Sailors Mending a Sail" and other genre works. In 1842 he returned to Paris and in 1844 attracted the favorable attention of artists by his "Milkwoman" and "Riding Lesson." On the death of his wife he returned to Normandy, but remarried and came again to Paris in 1845. After a series of religious and classical subjects, none of which attained success, he at last found himself in the "Winnower" (1848, Louvre), his first important picture, bought by Ledru-Rollin, the Minister of State during the revolution of 1848, in which Millet took part.

In 1849 he abandoned Paris for the village of Barbizon, which he made his permanent home. Here the Norman peasant, as he called himself, was surrounded by scenes he loved, with incomparable models for the peasant pictures to which he henceforth devoted himself. "The Sower" (1850, Vanderbilt collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York) was followed by "Man Spreading Manure" (1852); "The Reapers" (1853); "A Peasant Grafting a Tree" (1855); "The Gleaners" (1857, Louvre), one of his very best works; "The Angelus" (1857, Louvre); "Death and the Woodcutter" (1859, Copenhagen Gallery); "Woman Feeding her Children" (La Becquée, 1860), in the Lille Museum; and others, all produced while he was hampered by illness and debts. In 1860 he bound himself by contract to give all his work for three years for 1000 francs a month, but the contract was dissolved in six months. To this period belong "The Sheep Shearing" (1860); "Woman Feeding Child," "The Sheep Shearer," "Waiting" (all in 1861); "Potato Planters" (1862); "The Wool Carder" (1863); and "The Man with the Hoe" (1863, San Francisco Museum). From 1860 his reputation was regarded as established, and after 1863 he no longer suffered want. In 1864 he exhibited "The Shepherdess" (Louvre) and "Peasants Bringing Home a Calf"; in 1865 he produced some decorative work. At the Paris Exposition of 1867 he received a medal of the first class and in 1868 the ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Driven from Barbizon by the Franco-Prussian War, Millet repaired to Cherbourg and did not return until late in 1871. He was deeply affected by the death, in 1867, of his friend Rousseau, with whom, of all others, he was most intimate. Although the state of his health, which had been failing for some time, curtailed the hours of work, he continued to paint until December, 1874, when fever set in and he died on Jan. 20, 1875.

He was one of the artists selected by the government to decorate the Panthéon, but did not live to complete the commission. A number of important works are owned in the United States, among which are: "The Sower" and the "Water Carrier," "The Shepherdess," "At the Well," "The Knitting Lesson," "Hunting in Winter," the water color "Shepherd and Dog," and "Girl Raking Hay," all in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; "The Grafter," "Shepherdess," and "Water Carrier" (all three belonging to William Rockefeller); "The Turkey Keeper" (C. A. Dana, New York); "A Shepherdess Seated," "Homestead at Gréville," "Harvesters Resting," "Portrait of himself," and others in the Boston Art Museum; the "Planters" (Quincy Shaw collection, Boston); "Potato Harvest," "Sheep-fold," "Breaking the Flax," and five other works in the Walters collection, Baltimore. Although Millet's paintings began to increase in value before his death, his family was left in straitened circumstances and was pensioned by the government. His principal pictures have been etched and engraved. Himself a peasant, living the peasant's life, he painted his class as has never been done before or since. Omitting the accidental, he rendered only the typical, and his great shadowy figures seem inevitably a part of the earth. It was the master's custom to paint from memory, using his admirable sketches but no models, and to this is partially due the simplicity and breadth with which he treated his subjects.

Equally famous with Millet's paintings are many of his drawings, such as his own portrait (1848); "Woman Feeding Chickens"; "Shepherd with Flock"; "The Newborn Lamb"; "Laundresses on the Shore"; "First Steps." His pastels, too, are much prized; good examples are the "Vine Dresser Resting" and "Woman Churning." All show a good draftsman, with a fine feeling for form. His color is sad in tone, gray and brown usually prevailing; and he achieved harmony by a masterly treatment of light and atmosphere. The landscape background and the animals of his paintings are the equals of those done by the greatest specialists in these branches. Among the best of his pure landscapes are "Church of Gréville," "Spring," and "Winter"; the first two are in the Louvre, which, since the acquisition of the famous Chauchard collection, contains in all 21 paintings by Millet. He was also an etcher of great power, as is evident from his 13 original plates of subjects of peasant life, as well as from a number of others after his paintings. His designs for woodcuts, generally engraved by his two brothers, show great originality, being executed in bold, coarse outlines, more like those of the old German masters than nineteenth-century etchings. Monuments to Millet have been erected in Cherbourg and Gruchy, and a bronze plaque attached to a rock at the entrance to the forest of Fontainebleau is dedicated to him and Rousseau.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XV (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 689-690.