Paintings by Jean-Francois Millet

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Man with a Hoe Jean-François Millet French, Barbizon, 1860-1862 Oil on Canvas 31 ½ x 39 in. "[A]s I have never seen anything but fields since I was born, I try to say as best I can what I saw and felt when I was at work," wrote Jean-François Millet. At the Salon of 1863, Man with a Hoe caused a storm of controversy. The man in the picture was considered brutish and frightening by Parisian bourgeoisie. The Industrial Revolution had caused a steady exodus from French  farms, and Man with a Hoe was interpreted as a socialist protest about the peasant's plight. Though his paintings were judged in political terms, Millet declared that he was neither a socialist nor an agitator. A religious fatalist, Millet believed that man was condemned to bear his burdens. This farmer is Everyman. His face is lit, yet composed of blots of color that give him no individuality. He is big and dirty and utterly exhausted by the back-breaking work of turning this rocky, thistle-ridden earth into a productive field like the one being worked in the distance. A tribute to dignity and courage in the face of a life of unremitting exertion, Man with a Hoe was long considered a symbol of the laboring class. © The J. Paul Getty Trust, 2000. Online Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum

Man with a Hoe Jean-François Millet French, Barbizon, 1860-1862 Black chalk and stump with white chalk on buff paper 11 1/16 x 3 3/4 in. Sometimes, in places where the land is sterile, you see figures hoeing and digging. From time to time one raises himself an  straightens his back, …wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. ‘Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy brow.’ Is this the gay, jovial work some people would have us believe in? But nevertheless, to me it is true humanity and great poetry. Thus wrote Jean-François Millet about his favorite subject, agricultural laborers. Despite his philosophical intentions, these subjects earned him accusations of Socialist leanings. When he exhibited Man with a Hoe at the Salon of 1862, it quickly became one of the most controversial pictures of mid-1800s France. He probably made this drawing as a preparatory study for that painting, now also in the Getty Museum. In this drawing, Millet concentrated on the man, showing his face as less brutish, less exhausted, and more defined than in the finished painting. He used subtle additions of white chalk to render the clouds in the sky and the sun’s highlights on the farmer’s shirt. Drawn on buff paper, the entire scene has a soft, hazy quality achieved with a technique known as stumping. © The J. Paul Getty Trust, 2000. Online Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Walk to Work (Le Depart pour le Travail) Jean-François Millet 1851 Oil on Canvas 55.5 x 46 cm (21 7/8 x 18 1/8 in.) Online Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/millet/walkwork.jpg

Les Glaneuses Jean-François Millet 1857 Online Source: http://metalab.unc.edu/wm/paint/auth/millet/glaneuses.jpg

Faggot Carriers Jean-François Millet National Museum of Wales, Cardiff Online Source: http://pollux.bibl.u-szeged.hu/cgfa/m/p-millet5.htm

Fishermen Jean-François Millet Pencil on paper Museé d'Orsay, Paris Online Source: http://pollux.bibl.u-szeged.hu/cgfa/m/p-millet1.htm

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