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Jean-François Millet

1814-1875 France/Realism

 

Brief Biography-Jean-François Millet was known to have influenced the Barbizon school from just doing realistic landscapes to painting figures. He was born into a peasant family near Cherbourg in 1814. A local artist tutored him before he went to Paris in 1832 to study under Paul Delaroche. He first made a living with portraiture and exhibited a picture at the Salon in 1837. He moved to Barbizon in 1849, where he became established as a painter of peasant life. His subjects, being imbued with a sad aspect, became too sentimental for the enjoyment of prospective buyers. He painted more landscapes when travelling to Switzerland and received a first-class medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1867. As his fortunes improved in his later years, his health failed, thus retiring him near poverty. He died at the Barbizon in 1875.

 

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potato planters

potato planters

shepherd tending
his flock

shepherd tending his flock


the angelus

the angelus


the sheepfold

the sheepfold

abduction of the
sabine women

abduction of the sabine women

buckwheat harvest
summer

buckwheat harvest summer

farmer inserting a
graft on a tree

farmer inserting a graft on a tree

francois going
to work

francois going to work by Jean-François Millet


haystacks autumn

haystacks autumn

hunting birds
at night

hunting birds at night

louis alexandre
marolles

louis alexandre marolles

peasant girls with
brushwood

peasant girls with brushwood

peasant with a
wheelbarrow

peasant with a wheelbarrow

shepherdess seated
on a rock

shepherdess seated on a rock


spring

spring


the gleaners

the gleaners


the winnower

the winnower


trussing hay

trussing hay

winter the faggot
gatherers

winter the faggot gatherers

woman
baking bread

woman baking bread


young shepherdess

young shepherdess