Jean François Millet

In the late 1840s, Jean-François Millet began painting scenes from the world in which peasants lived and worked, the realism of which was the subject of controversial discussions among his contemporaries. The present drawing probably arose between 1855 and 1865, when Millet produced several paintings of indoor scenes showing women going about their work. The figures and room designs testify to Millet’s study of 17th century Dutch art and the works of Jean-Siméon Chardin. The artist has observed a scene from everyday life with great sensitivity. A peasant woman is sat waiting on a bench, her forearms crossed and the tip of her right foot resting on her left foot. There is a tentativeness and touching modesty in the old woman’s posture and facial expression. Comparable in stylistic respects are the preliminary studies for the Mother Feeding her Child in the Louvre (inv. RF 11252) and in Boston (Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 76.434) and the preliminary drawings for the Knitting Session in Boston (inv. 1994.117) and Pittsburgh (Frick Art and Historical Center, inv. 1984.1).

Millet himself came from a peasant family but was encouraged at an early age to practise drawing and pursue his literary interests. In Cherbourg he was apprenticed to both Bon Dumoucel, a pupil of David, and Langlois de Cèvreville, and from 1837 to Paul Delaroche in Paris. Having devoted his attention to mythological subjects during his student days, Millet initially painted portraits before concentrating on peasant scenes and, finally, landscapes. From 1849 he lived in Barbizon. While he himself did not attach any significance to his works from the point of view of social criticism, they were nevertheless seen very much in that light and discussed accordingly both in the context of the 1848 revolution and in the decades that followed. Without doubt they rank among the major works of French realism. 

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