3
Jean-François Millet (French: [mil]; October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875) was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers; he can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement.
The Sheepfold. In this painting by Millet, the waning moon throws a mysterious light across the plain between the villages of Barbizon and Chailly. The Walters Art Museum.
Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague (Normandy), close to the coast. Under the guidance of two village priests - one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux - Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm-work; because Millet was the eldest of the sons. So all the farmers work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs would return in his later art. This stopped when he was 18 and sent by his father to Cherbourg in 1833, to study with a portrait painter named Paul Dumouchel.
The Sheepfold. In this painting by Millet, the waning moon throws a mysterious light across the plain between the villages of Barbizon and Chailly. The Walters Art Museum.
Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague (Normandy), close to the coast. Under the guidance of two village priests - one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux - Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm-work; because Millet was the eldest of the sons. So all the farmers work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs would return in his later art. This stopped when he was 18 and sent by his father to Cherbourg in 1833, to study with a portrait painter named Paul Dumouchel.
