The National Gallery is marking the 150th anniversary of French Realist artist Jean-François Millet's death with a free exhibition dedicated to the painter best known for his iconic work 'The Angelus.' This comprehensive showcase highlights Millet's profound impact on 19th-century art through his authentic depictions of peasant life in rural France, which gained particular popularity among Victorian Britain's art enthusiasts.
The exhibition features nine atmospheric paintings and six drawings displayed in Room I, offering visitors an intimate look at Millet's artistic evolution. When the artist died in 1875, his works were being eagerly collected across Europe, with Scotland showing particular enthusiasm that resulted in numerous donations to British public museums. National Gallery curator Sarah Herring and Simon Kelly from the St. Louis Art Museum in Missouri have collaborated on a comprehensive publication that accompanies the exhibition, shedding new light on this enigmatic 19th-century master.
Born in 1814 in Gruchy, Normandy, to a devout and prosperous farming family, Millet displayed exceptional artistic talent from an early age, particularly in drawing from memory. His family encouraged his artistic pursuits, leading him to study with a portrait painter from Cherbourg who had been a student of the celebrated artist David. With financial support through a stipend, Millet enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, studying at the studio of Delaroche.
Millet's early career included both successes and setbacks. While his painting 'St. Anne Teaching the Virgin' was rejected by the Salon in 1839, a portrait he submitted the following year gained acceptance. During this period, he met Paul Durand-Ruel, the influential art dealer who purchased several of Millet's works, providing crucial early support for the emerging artist.
The late 1840s marked a pivotal shift in Millet's artistic focus as he began painting peasants and their daily occupations during a time of significant political turbulence across France and Europe. The year 1848, known as the Year of Revolutions, provided a charged backdrop for his evolving artistic vision. In 1849, Millet relocated to Barbizon in the Fontainebleau Forest, where he became associated with the renowned Barbizon School of artists, famous for their landscape paintings. However, Millet distinguished himself through his unique and dignified portrayal of peasant labor.
His painting 'The Sower,' now housed in Cardiff's National Museum collection, was submitted to the 1850 Salon and received considerable acclaim. Millet created several versions of this work, which particularly influenced Vincent van Gogh's later artistic development. However, subsequent works were viewed with suspicion by conservatives who perceived political overtones in his sympathetic depictions of peasant life. While Millet portrayed peasants with dignity and emphasized the nobility of work, both republicans and liberals felt he sought to ennoble the existing social order rather than challenge it. The artist himself claimed to be influenced solely by biblical references and themes.
Although not a regular churchgoer, Millet's Catholic faith and devotion to the Virgin Mary significantly influenced both his personal life and artistic output. After his first wife's death, he married his second wife in a civil ceremony but had the union blessed by a priest only weeks before his own death. This religious devotion manifested in several paintings of the Virgin Mary, including a life-sized picture of Notre Dame de Lorette that was installed as a shop sign in Paris's ninth arrondissement in 1851. Many of his paintings incorporated Marian imagery within contemporary rural scenes.
A remarkable commission came in 1858, four years after the Papal promulgation of the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, when Pope Pius IX asked Millet to create a painting for his chapel on the Papal train. Millet completed the work in just two months, depicting Mary crowned with stars, standing on a crescent moon while crushing a serpent beneath her foot, symbolizing her triumph over Satan as the Woman of the Apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation. However, the Pope ultimately rejected the painting, considering the Realist features inappropriate and reportedly complaining that the French could not properly paint Madonnas.
Concurrently, Millet was working on his most iconic piece, 'The Angelus,' completed in 1859. This masterpiece was inspired by memories of his grandmother making workers pause to remember the Creator through prayer, specifically reciting the words of the angel Gabriel in the Hail Mary. The painting depicts a couple harvesting their potato crop who stop to pray devoutly as the evening Angelus church bell tolls in the distance. Significantly, the church shown in the painting is where Millet himself would later be buried.
The exhibition particularly emphasizes Millet's focus on women's solitary work in homes and farmyards, with shepherdesses, goose girls, and milkmaids prominently represented. 'The Faggot Gatherers' from 1850-5 exemplifies this theme with its contemplative, mystical atmosphere featuring a barefoot, serene young woman leaning on her staff. She gazes at an older woman seated on her bundle of sticks, whose gnarled hands clearly indicate a life of hard labor. The connection between the two women, as their eyes meet, perhaps echoes the relationship between Mary and her mother, Saint Anne. This version is notably more uplifting than Millet's later 'Faggot Gatherers' from 1868, which depicts three exhausted women bowed down by the weight of their loads, though still maintaining a kind of noble symmetry.
Men's labor receives equally powerful treatment in works like 'The Wood Sawyers,' an impressive oil painting from 1850-2 that energetically portrays physical toil. The chalk and watercolor 'Wood Choppers' conveys human effort in every sinew, as does the drawing 'Two Men Sawing and Splitting Wood.' Throughout these works, Millet's sculptural treatment of faces and features, defined through light and shadow rather than precise detail, creates distinctly representative images of hardworking peasantry while giving them a heroic stance.
During his final decade, Millet achieved widespread recognition for his contributions to art and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1865. A British obituary praised his work, claiming that Millet's art was 'to the Englishman suggestive of the poetry and sentiment of Burns and the sympathetic feeling for nature of Wordsworth.' His influence on modern art proved considerable, resonating through various movements and artists including The Glasgow Boys, the Impressionists, and even Salvador Dalí.
'Life on the Land' at the National Gallery runs until October 19th, offering art enthusiasts a unique opportunity to experience Millet's profound artistic legacy. Additional information about the exhibition can be found at www.nationalgallery.org.
