Jean François Millet
Summary
Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) was a leading figure of the Barbizon School and one of the foremost painters of rural life in 19th-century France. Born in Normandy to a farming family, Millet carried the values of hard work, nature, and spirituality into his art. Trained in Paris but rooted in his peasant heritage, he rejected academic convention to depict agrarian labor with dignity and gravity. Masterpieces such as The Gleaners and The Angelus combined unidealized realism with profound moral and spiritual resonance. His work influenced generations of artists from Van Gogh to Dalí, leaving a legacy that bridged Realism and modern art.
Early Life and Education
Jean-François Millet was born in rural Normandy, the second child of modest farming parents Jean-Louis-Nicolas Millet and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry. His upbringing in the countryside profoundly shaped his vision. Guided by his father’s appreciation for nature and his grandmother’s devout faith, Millet developed both a deep spirituality and a respect for hard labor. He attended a local school where he studied Latin and read classical authors such as Virgil and Saint Augustine, experiences that combined intellectual discipline with the rhythms of agrarian life.
Recognized for his talent in drawing, Millet was sent to Cherbourg in 1833 to study with Paul Dumouchel. His training was interrupted in 1835 by the death of his father, requiring him to return to the farm as the eldest son. Encouraged by his grandmother, who viewed his art as divinely guided, he resumed his studies, later working under Lucien-Théophile Langlois. With Langlois’s support, Millet earned a stipend to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1837, where he studied under Paul Delaroche. Millet found Paris alienating and resisted the conventions of academic art, later declaring, “A peasant I was born, a peasant I will die.”
Early Career
Millet’s early career was marked by personal and professional instability. After his first Salon submission was rejected in 1839, a portrait was accepted the following year. In 1841, he married Pauline-Virginie Ono and moved to Paris, attempting to establish himself as a portraitist. Following Ono’s death from tuberculosis in 1844, Millet returned to Normandy. He entered into a partnership with Catherine Lemaire, with whom he would have nine children.
Millet’s artistic style evolved in the 1840s, moving from portraiture and Rococo-inspired compositions toward the themes of rural life that would define his mature work. His historical painting The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon (1848) was poorly received, and recurrent ill health, including migraines and rheumatism, plagued him throughout his life.
Mature Period and the Barbizon School
In 1849, amid the upheaval of the February Revolution and a cholera outbreak, Millet relocated his family to Barbizon, joining artists such as Théodore Rousseau, Constant Troyon, and Charles Jacque. Together, they formed the Barbizon School, dedicated to painting naturalistic landscapes and scenes of rural labor.
Millet’s daily life in Barbizon was marked by poverty. He farmed in the mornings and painted in the afternoons, often struggling to obtain supplies. Support from patrons such as Alfred Sensier helped sustain his practice. His works from this period, including Harvesters Resting (1852) and The Gleaners (1857), depicted peasants with dignity and gravity, though such subjects were sometimes criticized in France for their association with social unrest. His work found a warmer reception in America, where patrons like William Morris Hunt collected and promoted his art.
In 1853, Millet married Catherine Lemaire in a civil ceremony. His subjects continued to center on agrarian life, rendered without sentimentality yet imbued with a profound sense of moral and spiritual weight.
Later Career
By the 1860s, Millet began to enjoy greater recognition. His Shepherdess Guarding Her Flock was well received at the 1864 Salon, and in 1867, he exhibited nine paintings at the Universal Exposition in Paris. In 1868, he was awarded the Legion of Honor. The Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) forced him to take refuge in Cherbourg, during which time his focus shifted increasingly toward landscapes.
Millet’s health declined in the early 1870s. In 1875, he and Catherine were married in a religious ceremony to secure her rights of inheritance. Millet died at his home in Barbizon on January 20, 1875.
Legacy
Millet’s unidealized portrayals of rural labor profoundly influenced later generations of artists. Impressionists such as Georges Seurat admired his draftsmanship and sensitivity to light, while Vincent van Gogh found deep inspiration in his subject matter and expressive brushwork. His impact extended internationally to artists including Max Liebermann, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and William Morris Hunt, and into the 20th century, where Salvador Dalí famously reinterpreted The Angelus.
His work also influenced photography and cinema. Henri Cartier-Bresson studied Millet’s compositions, passing that influence to photographers such as Josef Koudelka and Sebastião Salgado. The Gleaners inspired Agnès Varda’s 2000 documentary The Gleaners and I, as well as later reinterpretations by contemporary artists like Banksy.
Millet’s legacy even touched literature and law. Mark Twain’s play Is He Dead? Humorously depicted, Millet faked his death to raise the value of his paintings. John Berger praised his art for its honesty, while public awareness of his family’s poverty after The Angelus sold for a vast sum posthumously contributed to the establishment of the droit de suite, granting artists’ heirs a share of resale profits.
Millet’s unwavering commitment to portraying the dignity of rural life, combined with his technical mastery, established him as a pivotal figure between Realism and the modern movements that followed.