Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet was a leading member of the Barbizon School and became renowned for his lyrical representations of rustic life. Born of Normandy peasant stock, he began his studies in the Parisian atelier of Delaroche in 1837. Despite initially producing pictures of traditional mythological subject matter, his first major success came from depicting farm work with The Winnower (1847). Along with Théodore Rousseau and a small community of landscape painters, he moved to Barbizon near Fontainbleau in 1849. A painting such as The Gleaners (1857) conveys Millet’s belief in the dignity and spirituality of peasant labor. To some, this message was dangerously subversive, born of radical socialist sympathies. In stark contrast, the lush romanticism of The Angelus (1859), combined with its astonishing popularity, later tarnished Millet with a reputation for sentimental kitsch. Either way, he had a profound influence on the next generation of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters.