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JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
A Collection of Fifteen Pictures and a Portrait of the Painter,
with Introduction and Interpretation
by
ESTELLE M. HURLL
The Riverside Art Series
1900
[Illustration: JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET]
PREFACE
In making a selection of Millet's pictures, devoted as they are to
the single theme of French peasant life, variety of subject can be
obtained only by showing as many phases of that life as possible.
Our illustrations therefore represent both men and women working
separately in the tasks peculiar to each, and working together in the
labors shared between them. There are in addition a few pictures of
child life.
The selections include a study of the field, the dooryard, and
the home interior, and range from the happiest to the most sombre
subjects. They show also considerable variety in artistic motive and
composition, and taken together fairly represent the scope of Millet's
work.
ESTELLE M. HURLL. NEW BEDFORD, MASS. March, 1900.
CONTENTS AND LIST OF PICTURES
PORTRAIT OF MILLET. DRAWN BY HIMSELF
INTRODUCTION
I. ON MILLET'S CHARACTER AS AN ARTIST
II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE
III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION
IV. OUTLINE TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN MILLET'S LIFE
V. SOME OF MILLET'S ASSOCIATES
I. GOING TO WORK
II. THE KNITTING LESSON
III. THE POTATO PLANTERS
IV. THE WOMAN SEWING BY LAMPLIGHT
V. THE SHEPHERDESS
VI. THE WOMAN FEEDING HENS
VII. THE ANGELUS
VIII. FILLING THE WATER-BOTTLES
IX. FEEDING HER BIRDS
X. THE CHURCH AT GRÉVILLE
XI. THE SOWER
XII. THE GLEANERS
XIII. THE MILKMAID
XIV. THE WOMAN CHURNING
XV. THE MAN WITH THE HOE
XVI. THE PORTRAIT OF MILLET
PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS
NOTE: All the pictures were made from carbon prints by Braun, Clément & Co.
INTRODUCTION
I. ON MILLET'S CHARACTER AS AN ARTIST
The distinctive features of Millet's art are so marked that the most
inexperienced observer easily identifies his work. As a painter of
rustic subjects, he is unlike any other artists who have entered the
same field, even those who have taken his own themes. We get at the
heart of the matter when we say that Millet derived his art directly
from nature. "If I could only do what I like," he said, "I would paint
nothing that was not the result of an impression directly received
from nature, whether in landscape or in figure." His pictures are
convincing evidence that he acted upon this theory. They have a
peculiar quality of genuineness beside which all other rustic art
seems forced and artificial.
The human side of life touched him most deeply, and in many of his
earlier pictures, landscape was secondary. Gradually he grew into
the larger conception of a perfect harmony between man and his
environment. Henceforth landscape ceased to be a mere setting or
background in a figure picture, and became an organic part of the
composition. As a critic once wrote of the Shepherdess, "the earth
and sky, the scene and the actors, all answer one another, all hold
together, belong together." The description applies equally well to
many other pictures and particularly to the Angelus, the Sower, and
the Gleaners. In all these, landscape and figure are interdependent,
fitting together in a perfect unity.
As a painter of landscapes, Millet mastered a wide range of the
effects of changing light during different hours of the day. The mists
of early morning in Filling the Water-Bottles; the glare of noonday in
the Gleaners; the sunset glow in the Angelus and the Shepherdess;
the sombre twilight of the Sower; and the glimmering lamplight of
the Woman Sewing, each found perfect interpretation. Though showing
himself capable of representing powerfully the more violent aspects of
nature, he preferred as a rule the normal and quiet.
In figure painting Millet sought neither grace nor beauty, but
expression. That he regarded neither of these first two qualities as
intrinsically unworthy, we may infer from the grace of the Sower, and
the naïve beauty of the Shepherdess and the Woman Sewing. But that
expression was of paramount interest to him we see clearly in the
Angelus and the Man with the Hoe. The leading characteristic of his
art is strength, and he distrusted the ordinary elements of prettiness
as taking something from the total effect he wished to produce. "Let
no one think that they can force me to prettify my types," he said. "I
would rather do nothing than express myself feebly."
It was always his first aim to make his people look as if they
belonged to their station. The "mute inglorious Milton" and Maud
Muller with her "nameless longings" had no place on his canvases. His
was the genuine peasant of field and farm, no imaginary denizen of the
poets' Arcady. "The beautiful is the fitting," was his final summary
of æsthetic theory, and the theory was put into practice on every
canvas.
In point of composition Millet's pictures have great excellence. "I
try not to have things look as if chance brought them together," he
said, "but as if they had a necessary bond between them." So nothing
is accidental, but every object, however small, is an indispensable
part of the whole scheme.
An important characteristic of his work is its power to suggest
the third dimension of space. The figures have a solid, tangible
appearance, as if actually alive. The Gleaners, the Woman Churning,
and the Man with the Hoe are thoroughly convincing in their reality.
The picture of the Gleaners especially has that so-called "quality of
circumambient light" which circulates about the objects, so to speak,
and gives them position in space. Millet's landscapes also have
a depth of spaciousness which reaches into infinite distance. The
principles of composition are applied in perspective as well as
laterally. We can look into the picture, through it, and beyond it, as
if we were standing in the presence of nature.
Mr. Bernhard Berenson goes so far as to say that this art of "space
composition," as he terms it, can "directly communicate religious
emotion," and explains on this ground the devotional influence of
Perugino's works, which show so remarkable a feeling for space.[1]
If he is right, it is on this principle, rather than because of its
subject, that the Angelus is, as it has sometimes been called, "one of
the greatest religious paintings of the age."
While Millet's art is, in its entirety, quite unique, there are
certain interesting points of resemblance between his work and that of
some older masters. He is akin to Rembrandt both in his indifference
to beauty and in his intense love of human nature. Millet's
indifference to beauty is the more remarkable because in this he stood
alone in his day and generation, while in the northern art of the
seventeenth century, of which Rembrandt is an exponent, beauty was
never supreme.
As a lover of human nature, Millet's sympathies, though no less
intense than Rembrandt's, were less catholic. His range of observation
was limited to peasant life, while the Dutch master painted all
classes and conditions of men. Yet both alike were profound students
of character and regarded expression as the chief element of beauty.
Rembrandt, however, sought expression principally in the countenance,
and Millet had a fuller understanding of the expressiveness of the
entire body. The work of each thus complements that of the other.
Millet's passion for figure expression was first worked out in
painting the nude. When he abandoned such subjects for the homelier
themes of labor, he gave no less attention to the study of form and
attitude. The simple clothing of the peasant is cut so loosely as to
give entire freedom of motion to the body, and it is worn so long
that it shapes itself perfectly to the figure. The body thus clad
is scarcely inferior to the nude in assuming the fine lines of an
expressive pose.
Millet's instinct for pose was that of a sculptor. Many of the
figures for his pictures were first carefully modelled in wax or clay.
Transferred to canvas they are drawn in the strong simple outlines of
a statue. It is no extravagant flight of fancy which has likened him
to Michelangelo. In the strength and seriousness of his conceptions,
the bold sweep of his lines, and, above all, in the impression of
motion which he conveys, he has much in common with the great Italian
master. Like Michelangelo, Millet gives first preference to the
dramatic moment when action is imminent. The Sower is in the act of
casting the seed into the ground, as David is in the act of stretching
his sling. As we look, we seem to see the hand complete its motion. So
also the Gleaners, the Women Filling the Water-Bottles, and the Potato
Planters are all portrayed in attitudes of performance.
When Millet represents repose it is as an interval of suspended
action, not as the end of completed work. The Shepherdess pauses but
a moment in her walk and will immediately move on again. The man and
woman of the Angelus rest only for the prayer and then resume their
work. The Man with the Hoe snatches but a brief respite from his
labors. The impression of power suggested by his figure, even in
immobility, recalls Michelangelo's Jeremiah.
To the qualities which are reminiscent of Michelangelo Millet adds
another in which he is allied to the Greeks. This is his tendency
towards generalization. It is the typical rather than the individual
which he strives to present. "My dream," he once wrote, "is to
characterize the type." So his figures, like those of Greek sculpture,
reproduce no particular model, but are the general type deduced from
the study of many individuals.
[Footnote 1: In _Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance_.]
II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE
Since the death of Millet, in 1875, much that is interesting and
valuable has been written of his life and work. The first biography
of the painter was that by his friend Sensier, in a large illustrated
volume whose contents have been made familiar to English readers by an
abridged translation published in this country simultaneously with
the issue of the French edition. Containing all the essential facts of
Millet's outward life, besides a great number of the artist's letters,
together with his autobiographical reminiscences of childhood,
Sensier's work is the principal source of information, from which all
later writers draw. Yet it is not an altogether fair and satisfactory
presentation of Millet's life. Undue emphasis is laid upon his
struggles with poverty, and the book leaves much to be desired.
Julia Cartwright's recent work, "Jean François Millet: His Life and
Letters," is founded on Sensier's life, yet rounds out the study of
the master's character and work with the fuller knowledge with which
family and friends have described his career.
Another recent book called "J.F. Millet and Rustic Art" is by
Henry Naegely (published in England), and is critical rather than
biographical in purport. It is a sympathetic appreciation of Millet's
art and character, and grows out of a careful study of the painter's
works and an intimate connection with the Millet family.
Besides these books devoted exclusively to the subject, the life work
of Millet is admirably sketched in brief form in the following more
general works:--
Richard Muther's "History of Modern Painting," Mrs. Stranahan's
"History of French Painting," Rose G. Kingsley's "History of French
Art," and D.C. Thomson's "Barbizon School."
Of great importance to the student of Millet are the various articles
contributed to the magazines by those who knew and understood the
painter. The following are of special note: By Edward W. Wheelwright,
in "The Atlantic Monthly," September, 1876; by Wyatt Eaton, in the
"Century," May, 1889; by T.H. Bartlett, in "Scribner's," May and June,
1890; by Pierre Millet, in "Century," January, 1893, and April, 1894;
and by Will Low, in "McClure's," May, 1896. Julia Cartwright, in the
preface to the above mentioned biography, mentions other magazine
articles not so generally accessible.
III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION
_Portrait frontispiece_, a life-size crayon made by Millet in 1847
and given to his friend Charlier. It afterwards became the property of
Sensier..
1. _Going to Work_, one of several versions of the subject in
different mediums, oil, pastel, drawing, and etching. This picture was
painted in 1851, and was at one time (1891) in a private collection in
Glasgow.[1] It is to be distinguished from the picture of 1850, where
the woman carries a pitcher instead of a rope.[2]
2. _The Knitting Lesson_, a drawing corresponding in general
composition, with some changes of detail, to the small painting (17 by
14-1/2 in.) of the subject in the collection of Mrs. Martin Brimmer,
in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
3. _The Potato Planters_, painted in 1862, and exhibited at the
great exhibition at Paris of that year, also again in 1867 at the
International Exhibition. It changed hands for large sums during
the painter's lifetime, and is now in the Quincy A. Shaw collection,
Boston, Mass.
4. _The Woman Sewing by Lamplight_, painted in 1872, and sold in 1873
for 38,500 francs, the highest price at that time ever paid for one of
Millet's works.
5. _The Shepherdess_, painted in 1862, and exhibited at the Salon of
1864, also again at the Exposition Universelle of 1867. It is now in
the collection of M. Chauchard.
6. _The Woman Feeding Hens_, a charcoal sketch, corresponding in
general composition to the description of a painting bearing the same
name, which was painted in 1854 for M. Letrône for 2000 francs.
7. _The Angelus_, an oil painting measuring 25 by 21 in. The first
drawing for the picture was sold February, 1858. The painting was
completed for exhibition in the Salon of 1859. It was declined by the
patron for whom it was intended, and finally sold to a Belgian artist
in 1860, and soon afterwards to the Belgian minister. The original
price was 2000 francs. The picture passed from one owner to another,
and in 1873 was bought by J.W. Wilson for 50,000 francs, later
bringing at the Wilson sale of 1881 the sum of £6400. In an auction
sale of the Secrétan collection, July, 1889, there was an immense
excitement over the contest between the French government, represented
by M. Proust, Director of Fine Arts, and various American dealers, who
were determined to win the prize. It was finally knocked down to M.
Proust for 553,000 francs, but the French government refused to ratify
the purchase, and the picture was brought to the United States. Here
the customs duty exacted was so enormous (£7000) that the picture
remained only six months (the duty being waived during that period),
and after being exhibited throughout the country finally returned to
France, where it was purchased for £32,000 by M. Chauchard, who has
the finest collection of Millets in existence.
8. _Filling the Water-Bottles,_ a charcoal drawing, which attracted
much attention when exhibited in the Millet collection of the Paris
Exposition, 1889.
9. _Feeding Her Birds_, painted in 1860, and exhibited in Salon of
1861. Presented by a purchaser to the Museum of Lille in 1871.
10. _The Church at Gréville_, sketched during Millet's visit at
Gréville in the summer of 1871; referred to by him, in a letter of
1872, as still in process of painting; found in his studio at the
time of his death, in 1875. The picture was bought by the French
government, and is now in the Louvre, Paris.
11. _The Sower_, the second painting of the subject, painted in 1850,
and exhibited in the Salon of 1850-51. It is now in the Vanderbilt
collection, New York.
A pencil sketch of the Sower is in the collection of Millet's
drawings, at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.[3]
12. _The Gleaners_, a painting first exhibited at the Salon of 1867.
It was sold to M. Binder of l'Isle Adam for 2000 francs. In 1889 it
was purchased by Madame Pommeroy for 300,000 francs, and presented
to the Louvre, Paris. A pencil drawing of the three figures is in the
collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
13. _The Milkmaid_, painted in 1871 from a sketch made in Gréville.
Seen in Millet's studio in 1873 by Will Low, the American artist.
14. _The Woman Churning_, one of several versions of the subject, the
first of which appeared in 1870.
15. _The Man with the Hoe_, painted in 1862 and exhibited at the Salon
of 1863. Sold to a Belgian collector, and long in Brussels. It is now
owned by Mr. W.S. Crocker of San Francisco, Cal.
[Footnote 1: See D.C. Thomson's _Barbizon School_, pp. 226, 227.]
[Footnote 2: See Julia Cartwright, _Life and Letters of Jean François
Millet_, pp. 114,115.]
[Footnote 3: This is one of an interesting collection of drawings in
this museum, which also contains several original paintings by Millet,
a Shepherdess, seated, a portrait of the painter, and others. Other
fine Millets are in the private collections of Boston, where the
painter received early appreciation, owing to the enthusiasm of
William Morris Hunt, the painter, and such connoisseurs as Mr. Quincy
Shaw and Mr. Brimmer.]
IV. OUTLINE TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN MILLET'S LIFE
1814. Millet born, October 4, in hamlet of Gruchy, commune of Gréville, in
the old province of Normandy, France.
1832. Two months' study with Mouchel in Cherbourg.
Death of Millet's father.
Study with Langlois in Cherbourg.
1837. Removal to Paris, supported by annuity of 400 francs from the
municipality of Cherbourg.[1]
1837-1839 (?). Studies with Delaroche.[2]
1840. A portrait of M.L.F. exhibited at Salon of the Louvre.
1841. Portrait of Mademoiselle Antoinette Feuardent.
Marriage with Mademoiselle Pauline Virginie Ono in Cherbourg.
1842. Returned to Paris.
1844. Millet exhibited at Salon: the Milkmaid, the Riding Lesson.
Death of Millet's wife, April 21, and Millet's return home for
18 months.
1845. Marriage with Catherine Lemaire late in summer, in Gréville.
Visit in Havre in November.
Arrival in Paris in December, and residence in the rue
Rochehouart.
1847. Oedipus taken from the Tree exhibited at the Salon.
1848. Millet exhibited at the Salon the Winnower, bought by M.
Ledru-Rollin for 500 francs, and the Captivity of the Jews in
Babylon.
1849. Removal to Barbizon.
1850. The Sower painted and exhibited at the Salon with the Sheaf Binders.
1851. Death of Millet's grandmother, Louise Jumelin, at Gruchy.
1853. Death of Millet's mother at Gruchy.
Millet exhibited at the Salon:--
Ruth and Boaz, bought by an American.
The Sheep Shearer,} bought by William Morris
The Shepherd, } Hunt.
1854. Visit four months to the surroundings of the old home in Normandy.
1855. The Grafter, exhibited at the Salon.
1856. Le Pare aux Moutons painted.
1857. The Gleaners exhibited at the Salon.
1859. The Angelus exhibited at the Salon.
1860-1861. The Shepherd in the Fold by Moonlight, and the Femme aux Seaux.
1861. The Potato Planters painted.
Millet exhibited at the Salon of the Champs Elysèes:
Feeding Her Birds.
Waiting.
The Sheep Shearer.
1862. List of pictures painted:--
Winter.
The Crows.
Sheep Feeding.
The Wool Carder.
The Stag.
The Birth of the Calf.
The Shepherdess.
The Man with the Hoe.
1863. Millet sent to Salon: Man with the Hoe, The Wool Carder (see list of
works in 1862), and a Shepherd bringing Home his Sheep.
1864. Millet exhibited at the Salon: The Shepherdess, and The Birth of the
Calf (see list of works in 1862).
1865. Completion of decorative pictures for M. Thomas: Spring and Summer,
panels 8 by 4 ft., set in the woodwork; Autumn for the ceiling;
Winter for the chimneypiece.
1866. Short visit to Vichy, Auvergne, Clermont, Issoire.
1867. Millet exhibited at the Exposition Universelle (International
Exhibition):--
Death and the Woodcutter (refused by the Salon of 1859).
The Gleaners.
The Shepherdess.
The Sheep Shearer.
The Shepherd.
The Sheep Fold.
The Potato Planters.
The Potato Harvest.
The Angelus.
Visit to Vichy in June.
1867-69. The Pig Killers.
1868. Millet made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, August 13.
Journey with Sensier in Alsace and Switzerland, September.
1870. Millet elected, March 24, juror for coming exposition.
The Woman Churning exhibited at the Salon.
Departure for Gréville on account of danger of remaining
in Barbizon during the war.
1871. Return to Barbizon November 7.
1874. Order from Administration of Beaux Arts for mural decorations in
the Panthéon (Ste. Geneviève), Paris.
The Priory painted.
1875. Death of Millet, January 20, at Barbizon.
[Footnote 1: To this was added later 600 francs from the General
Council of La Manche, but both annuities were soon discontinued.]
[Footnote 2: The exact date of Millet's severing connection
with Delaroche is not mentioned by his biographers, though the
circumstances are detailed.]
V. SOME OF MILLET'S ASSOCIATES
Companions in the studio of Delaroche:--
Charles François Hébert (1817- ).
Jalabert (1819- ).
Thomas Couture (1815-1879).
Edouard Frère (1819-1886).
Adolphe Yvon (1817- ).
Antigna (1818-1878).
Prosper Louis Roux (1817- ).
Marolle.
Cavalier, sculptor.
Gendron (1817-1881).
Friends and neighbors in Paris:--
Couture (also fellow student in studio of Delaroche).
Tourneaux (1809-1867), painter and poet.
Diaz (1808-1876), landscape painter.
Joseph Guichard (1836-1877), marine painter.
Charles Jacque (1813- ), etcher.
Camprédon.
Séchan, clever scene painter.
Diéterle, clever scene painter.
Eugène Lacoste.
Azevédo, musical critic.
Friends at Barbizon:--
Charles Jacque (who removed thither with him).
Diaz (also a friend of the Paris days).
Corot (1796-1875).
Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867).
Laure (1806-1861).
William Morris Hunt, American painter.
Mr. Hearn, American painter.
Mr. Babcock, American painter.
Edward Wheelwright, American painter.
Wyatt Eaton, American painter.
Will Low, American painter.
I
GOING TO WORK
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where the sea forms a narrow
channel separating the British Isles from the European continent, lies
that part of France known as the old province of Normandy. There is
here a very dangerous and precipitous coast lined with granite cliffs.
The villages along the sea produce a hardy race of peasants who make
bold fishermen on the water and thrifty farmers on the land.
To this Norman peasant stock belonged Jean François Millet, the
painter of the pictures reproduced in this little book. He was brought
up to hard out-of-door labor on his father's farm in the village of
Gréville, but when the artistic impulses within him could no longer
be repressed, he left his home to study art. Though he became a famous
painter, he always remained at heart a true peasant. He set up his
home and his studio in a village called Barbizon, near the Forest
of Fontainebleau, not many miles from Paris. Here he devoted all
his gifts to illustrating the life of the tillers of the soil. His
subjects were drawn both from his immediate surroundings and from the
recollections of his youth. "Since I have never in all my life known
anything but the fields," he said, "I try to say, as best I can, what
I saw and felt when I worked there." It is now a quarter of a century
since the painter's life work ended, and in these years some few
changes have been made in the customs and costumes which Millet's
pictures represented. Such changes, however, are only outward; the
real life of peasant labor is always the same. Seedtime and harvest,
toil, weariness and rest, the ties of home and of religion, are
subjects which never grow old fashioned.
In France the farm labors are shared by men and women alike. The
peasant woman is sturdily built, and her healthy out-of-door life
makes her very strong. She is fitted by nature and training to work
beside the men in the fields. In our first picture we see a young man
and woman starting out together for the day's work.
It is morning, and the early sun illumines the distant plain, where
ploughing has already begun. The light falls on the two figures as
they walk down the sloping hillside.
They are dressed for their work in clothing which is plain and coarse,
but which is perfectly suited for the purpose. The French peasants'
working clothes are usually of strong homespun cloth, fashioned in the
simplest way, to give the wearers entire ease in motion. They are in
the dull blues, browns, and reds which delight the artist's eye. Such
colors grow softer and more beautiful as they fade, so that garments
of this kind are none the less attractive for being old. Ragged
clothing is seldom seen among peasants. They are too thrifty and
self-respecting to make an untidy appearance.
[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clément & Co. John Andrew
& Son, Sc. GOING TO WORK]
The men wear soft felt hats, the brim of which can be pulled forward
to shade the eyes. The women cover their heads neatly with caps or
kerchiefs, and are nearly always seen with aprons. Men and women both
wear the heavy wooden shoes called _sabots_, in which the feet suffer
no pressure as from leather shoes, and are protected against the
moisture of the ground.
The peasants of our picture carry all they need for the day's work.
A three-pronged fork rests across the man's shoulder, and a wallet of
lunch hangs from his left arm. The woman has a basket, a linen sack,
and a bit of rope. Evidently something is to be brought home. Just now
she has swung the empty basket up over her shoulders and it covers her
head like a huge sunbonnet.
The two young people are full of the healthy vigor which makes work
a pleasure. They go cheerfully to their day's task as if they really
enjoyed it. We cannot help suspecting that they are lovers. The man
carries himself erect with a conscious air of manliness, and steps
briskly, with his hand thrust into his pocket. The girl hides her
shyness in the shadow of the basket as she turns her face towards
his. The two swing along buoyantly, keeping step as if accustomed to
walking together.
At the close of the day's work the basket and sack will be filled, and
the laborers will return to their home by the same way. The burden may
be heavy, but they will bear it as the reward of their toil.
The picture of Going to Work was painted at about the same time[1]
as the The Sower, which forms one of the later illustrations of our
collection. A comparison of the pictures will show interesting points
of resemblance between the two men striding down hill. Though Going to
Work is not as a work of art of equal rank with The Sower, we get in
both pictures a delightful sense of motion which makes the figures
seem actually alive.
[Footnote 1: That is, within a year. See dates in the _Historical
Directory_.]
II
THE KNITTING LESSON
In the picture we have been examining we have seen something of the
outdoor life of the French peasants, and now we are shown the interior
of one of their houses, where a Knitting Lesson is being given. The
girls of the French peasantry are taught only the plainest kinds of
needlework. They have to begin to make themselves useful very early in
life, and knitting is a matter of special importance. In these large
families many pairs of stockings are needed, and all must be homemade.
This is work which the little girls can do while the mother is busy
with heavier labors. The knitting work becomes a girl's constant
companion, and there are few moments when her hands are idle.
The little girl in our picture is still a beginner in the art, and the
lesson is a very exciting occasion to her. Already she feels like a
woman.
The mother and daughter have their chairs by the window to get a good
light on the work. It is a large and beautiful casement window, of the
kind almost universal in France, opening lengthwise in the middle in
two parts which swing on hinges like doors. The window seat serves as
a table, to hold the basket and scissors. The doll is thrust into the
corner; our little girl has "put away childish things"--at least for
the moment,--and takes her task very seriously.
The two chairs are drawn close together, the one a small counterpart
of the other. The child braces her feet firmly on one of the rounds
and bends her whole mind to her work. Both mother and daughter wear
close white caps, though the little girl's is of a more childish
pattern and does not cover her pretty hair in front.
The mother has been sewing on some large garment which lies across
her lap. She lets the little girl work by herself for a time, and then
stops to set her right. Already a considerable length of stocking
has been made, but this is a place where close attention is needed.
Perhaps it is time to begin shaping the heel. The mother's work
is left altogether for a moment. Putting her arm about the child's
shoulder, she takes the two little hands in hers, and guides the
fingers holding the needles.
We get some idea of the quaint style of the building from this glimpse
of the living-room. Probably it is a low stone cottage with thatched
or tiled roof. The deep window seat shows how thick the walls are.
Overhead we see the oak rafters.
The room looks spotlessly clean, as a good housewife's should. Though
we see only a corner, that corner holds the most precious household
possession, the linen chest. It stands against the wall, and is of
generous size. French country people take great pride in storing up a
quantity of linen; tablecloths, sheets, shirts, pillowcases, often
of their own weaving, are piled in the deep clothes-presses. In
well-to-do families there are enough for six months' use, the family
washing taking place only twice a year, in spring and fall, like
house-cleaning in America. We judge that our housekeeper is well
provided, by the pile of neatly folded sheets on the press. The little
clock, high on the wall, and the vase of flowers on the chest are
the only touches of ornament in the room. On the wall are some small
objects which look like shuttles for weaving.
[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clément & Co John Andrew
& Son, Sc. THE KNITTING LESSON]
As we look at the picture we feel sure that Millet was a lover of
children, and it is pleasant to know that he had many of his own. The
artist father was his children's favorite playmate, and at the close
of his day's work in his studio, they ran to meet him with shouts of
joy. He used to like to walk about the garden with them showing them
the flowers. In winter time they sat together by the fire, and the
father sang songs and drew pictures for the little ones. Sometimes
taking a log from the wood basket he would carve a doll out of it, and
paint the cheeks with vermilion. This is the sort of doll we see on
the window seat in our picture.
Ruskin tells us that a true artist feels like a caged bird in painting
any enclosed space, unless it contains some opening like a door or
window. No amount of beauty will content us, he says, if we are shut
in to that alone. Our picture is a good proof of this principle. We
can easily fancy how different the effect would be without the window:
the room would appear almost like a prisoner's cell. As it is, the
great window suggests the out-of-door world into which it opens, and
gives us a sense of larger space.
Our illustration is taken from a drawing. Millet was a painstaking
artist who made many drawings and studies for his paintings. This is
probably such a study, as there is also a painting by him of the same
subject very similar to this.
III
THE POTATO PLANTERS
In the picture called The Potato Planters we are reminded at once
of the peasants we have already seen in Going to Work. We see here
married people a few years older than the young people of the other
picture working together in the fields.
It may be that this is their own little plot of ground, for they work
with a certain air of proprietorship. They look prosperous, too, and
are somewhat better dressed than common laborers. It is the highest
ambition of the French peasant to own a bit of land. He will make any
sacrifice to get it, and possessing it, is well content. He labors
with constant industry to make it yield well.
The field here is at quite a distance from the village where the
workers live. We can see the little group of houses on the horizon. In
France the agricultural classes do not build their dwelling-houses on
their farms, but live instead in village communities, with the
farms in the outlying districts. The custom has many advantages. The
families may help one another in various ways both by joining forces
and exchanging services. They may also share in common the use of
church, school, and post office. This French farming system has been
adopted in Canada, while in our own country we follow the English
custom of building isolated farmhouses.
In working season the French farmer must go daily to his labor at
a distance. The people in our picture are fortunate enough to own
a donkey which is their burden-bearer between house and field. The
strong little creature can carry a heavy load properly disposed in
pannier baskets. The panniers are made very deep and wide, but rather
flat, so as to fit the sides of the donkey. With one of these hanging
on each side of the saddle, the weight of the burden is so well
distributed that it is easily borne.
The donkey of our picture has been relieved of his panniers, and now
rests in the shade of some apple-trees. One of the baskets is in the
mean time put to a novel use. Made soft and warm with a heavy cloak,
it forms a nice cradle for the baby. The babies in French peasant
families are often left at home with the grandmother, while the mother
goes out to field work. The painter Millet himself was in childhood
the special charge of his grandmother, while his mother labored on the
farm. The people of our picture have another and, as it seems, a much
pleasanter plan, in going to the field as a family party.
[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clément & Co John Andrew
& Son, Sc. THE POTATO PLANTERS]
The day is well advanced and the work goes steadily on. It is potato
planting, and the potato crop is of great importance to country
people, second perhaps to the wheat, as it supplies food to both man
and beast. The commoner varieties, as the large white, are raised for
cattle, and the finer and sweeter kinds, the red and the yellow, are
kept for the table.
The laborer and his wife move along the field, facing each other on
opposite sides of the row they are planting. The man turns the sod
with his hoe, a short-handled tool which long practice has taught him
to use skilfully. The wife carries the potato seed in her apron, and
as her husband lifts each spadeful of earth, she throws the seed into
the hole thus made. He holds the hoe suspended a moment while the seed
drops in, and then replaces the earth over it. The two work in perfect
unison, each following the other's motion with mechanical regularity,
as they move down the field together.
The two who work so well together in the field are sure to work well
together in the home. The man has the serious, capable look of a
provident husband. The woman looks like a good housewife. That shapely
hand throwing the seed so deftly into the ground is well adapted to
domestic tasks.
We may easily identify our picture as a familiar scene in Millet's
Barbizon surroundings. We are told that "upon all sides of Barbizon,
save one, the plain stretches almost literally as far as the eye can
reach," and presents "a generally level and open surface." "There are
no isolated farmhouses, and no stone walls, fences, or hedges,
except immediately around the villages; and were it not all under
cultivation, the plain might be taken for a vast common."[1]
It is evident, then, that we here see the plain of Barbizon and true
Barbizon peasants of Millet's day. The villagers of the painter's
acquaintance were on the whole a prosperous class, nearly all owning
their houses and a few acres of ground. The big apple-tree under which
the donkey rests is just such an one as grew in Millet's own little
garden.
Fruit trees were his peculiar delight. He knew all their ways,
and "all their special twists and turnings;" how the leaves of the
apple-tree are bunched together on their twigs, and how the roots
spread under ground. "Any artist," he used to say, "can go to the East
and paint a palm-tree, but very few can paint an apple-tree."
[Footnote 1: From Edward Wheelwright's _Recollections of Jean François
Millet,_ in _Atlantic Monthly_, September, 1876.]
IV
THE WOMAN SEWING BY LAMPLIGHT
Though the peasant women of France have so large a share in the
laborious out-of-door work on the farms, they are not unfitted for
domestic duties. In the long winter evenings they devote themselves
to more distinctly woman's tasks, knitting and sewing, sometimes even
spinning and weaving. Their housekeeping is very simple, for they live
frugally, but they know how to make the home comfortable. Many modern
inventions are still unknown to them, and we should think their
customs very primitive, but on this account they are perhaps even more
picturesque.
There is contentment in every line of the face of this Woman Sewing by
Lamplight. It is the face of a happy young wife and mother. She
sits close by her baby's bedside that she may listen to his gentle
breathing as he sleeps, and she smiles softly to herself while she
sews. It is a sweet face which bends over the work, and it is framed
in the daintiest of white caps edged with a wide ruffle which is
turned back over the hair above the forehead, that it may not shade
her eyes.
The garment that lies on her lap is of some coarse heavy material. No
dainty bit of fancy work is this, but a plain piece of mending. It
may be the long cloak which the shepherd wraps about him in cold and
stormy weather. Made from the wool grown on his own sheep, spun by his
wife's own hand, it is unrivalled among manufactured cloths for warmth
and comfort. The needle is threaded with a coarse thread of wool,
which the sewer draws deftly through the cloth.
On a pole which runs from floor to ceiling is a hook, from which a
lamp is suspended by a chain. This lamp appears to be a boat-shaped
vessel with the wick coming out at one end. The light gilds the
mother's gentle profile with shining radiance; it illumines the
fingers of her right hand, and gleams on the coarse garment in her
lap, transforming it into a cloth of gold.
[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clément & Co. THE WOMAN
SEWING BY LAMPLIGHT John Andrew & Son, Sc.]
The baby meanwhile lies on the other side of the lamp in the shadow.
His little mouth is open, and he is fast asleep. We can almost fancy
that the mother croons a lullaby as she sews. There is a pathetic
little French song called La Petite Hélène, which Millet's mother used
to sing to him, and which he in turn taught his own children. Perhaps
we could not understand the words if we could hear it. But when
mothers sing to their babies, whatever the tongue in which they speak,
they use a common language of motherhood. Some such simple little
lullaby as this, which mothers of another land sing to their babes,
would doubtless interpret this mother's thoughts:--
"Sleep, baby, sleep!
Thy father watches the sheep;
Thy mother is shaking the dreamland tree,
And down comes a little dream on thee.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
"Sleep, baby, sleep!
The large stars are the sheep;
The little ones are the lambs, I guess:
The gentle moon is the shepherdess,
Sleep, baby, sleep!
"Sleep, baby, sleep!
Our Saviour loves his sheep;
He is the Lamb of God on high
Who for our sakes came down to die.
Sleep, baby, sleep!"
When we remember that the ancient Romans had lamps constructed
somewhat like that in the picture, it seems strange that so rude a
contrivance should be in use in the nineteenth century. But this is
only the practical and prosaic side of the question. For artistic
purposes the lamp is just what is wanted in the composition.
You can see how a lamp with a glass chimney and shade would spoil the
whole effect. We should lose that strange beautiful halo surrounding
the wick, and the light would fall only on the work, instead of
glorifying the face of the mother. These wonderful impressions of
light add much to the artistic beauty of the picture, and explain why
artists have so greatly admired it.
The picture naturally recalls that other Mother and Babe, Mary of
Nazareth and the holy Child Jesus, who for so many centuries have
inspired the imagination of artists. Often a painter has drawn his
first conception for this sacred subject from some peasant mother and
child such as these.
In order to give religious significance to their pictures, artists
have tried in many ways to suggest the supernatural. They have
introduced halos about the heads of Mary and Jesus, and have made
the light seem to shine mysteriously from the child's body. Now our
painter Millet, representing only an ordinary mother and babe, has
not used any such methods. Nevertheless, without going beyond strict
reality, he has produced a mystical effect of light which makes this
picture worthy of a place among the Madonnas. The glow of the lamp
transforms the familiar scene into a shrine of mother's love.
V
THE SHEPHERDESS
Many years ago the early English poet, Sir Philip Sidney, wrote a book
about an imaginary country called Arcadia, noted for the sweetness
of the air and the gentle manners of the people. As he described the
beauties of the scenery there, he told of "meadows enamelled with all
sorts of eye-pleasing flowers; each pasture stored with sheep feeding
with sober security; here a shepherd's boy piping as though he should
never be old; there a young shepherdess knitting and withal singing,
and it seemed that her voice comforted her hands to work, and her
hands kept time to her voice-music."
We could easily fancy that our picture of the Shepherdess was meant
to illustrate a scene in Arcadia. Here is the meadow "enamelled with
eye-pleasing flowers," the sheep "feeding with sober security," and
the young shepherdess herself knitting. Though she is not singing with
her lips, her heart sings softly as she knits, and her hands keep time
to the dream-music.
Early in the morning she led her flock out to the fallow pastures
which make good grazing ground. All day long the sheep have nibbled
the green herbage at their own sweet will, always under the watchful
eye of their gentle guardian. Her hands have been busy all the time.
Like patient Griselda in Chaucer's poem, who did her spinning while
she watched her sheep, "she would not have been idle till she slept."
Ever since she learned at her mother's knee those early lessons in
knitting, she has kept the needles flying. She can knit perfectly well
now while she follows her flock about. The work almost knits itself
while her eyes and thoughts are engaged in other occupations.
The little shepherdess has an assistant too, who shares the
responsibilities of her task. He is a small black dog, "patient and
full of importance and grand in the pride of his instinct."[1] When a
sheep is tempted by an enticing bit of green in the distance to stray
from its companions, the dog quickly bounds after the runaway and
drives it back to the flock. Only the voice of the shepherdess is
needed to send him hither, thither, and yon on such errands.
Now nightfall comes, and it is time to lead the flock home to the
sheepfold. The sheep are gathered into a compact mass, the ram in
their midst. The shepherdess leads the way, and the dog remains at
the rear, "walking from side to side with a lordly air," to allow no
wanderer to escape.
[Illustration: From a carbon print by Braun, Clément & Co. John Andrew
& Son, Sc. THE SHEPHERDESS]
Their way lies across the plain whose level stretch is unbroken by
fences or buildings. In the distance men may be seen loading a wagon
with hay. The sheep still keep on nibbling as they go, and their
progress is slow. The shepherdess takes time to stop and rest now and
then, propping her staff in front of her while she picks up a stitch
dropped in her knitting. There is a sense of perfect stillness in the
air, that calm silence of the fields, which Millet once said was the
gayest thing he knew in nature.
The chill of nightfall is beginning to be felt, and the shepherdess
wears a hood and cape. Her face shows her to be a dreamer. These
long days in the open air give her many visions to dream of. Her
companionship with dumb creatures makes her more thoughtful, perhaps,
than many girls of her age.
As a good shepherdess she knows her sheep well enough to call them all
by name. From their soft wool was woven her warm cape and hood, and
there is a genuine friendship between flock and mistress. When she
goes before them, they follow her, for they know her voice.
Among the traditions dear to the hearts of the French people is one of
a saintly young shepherdess of Nanterre, known as Ste. Geneviève. Like
the shepherdess of our picture, she was a dreamer, and her strange
visions and wonderful sanctity set her apart from childhood for a
great destiny. She grew up to be the saviour of Paris, and to-day her
name is honored in a fine church dedicated to her memory. It was the
crowning honor of Millet's life that he was commissioned to paint on
the walls of this church scenes from the life of Ste. Geneviève. He
did not live to do the work, but one cannot help believing that his
ideals of the maiden of Nanterre must have taken some such shape as
this picture of the Shepherdess.
In the painting from which our illustration is reproduced, the colors
are rich and glowing. The girl's dress is blue and her cap a bright
red. The light shining on her cloak turns it a rich golden brown.
Earth and sky are glorified by the beautiful sunset light.
As we look across the plain, the earth seems to stretch away on every
side into infinite distance. We are carried out of ourselves into the
boundless liberty of God's great world. "The still small voice of the
level twilight" speaks to us out of the "calm and luminous distance."
Ruskin has sought to explain the strange attractive power which
luminous space has for us. "There is one thing that it has, or
suggests," he says, "which no other object of sight suggests in equal
degree, and that is,--Infinity. It is of all visible things the least
material, the least finite, the farthest withdrawn from the earth
prison-house, the most typical of the nature of God, the most
suggestive of the glory of his dwelling place."[2]
[Footnote 1: Like the watchdog described in Longfellow's _Evangeline_,
Part II.]
[Footnote 2: In _Modern Painters_, in chapter on "Infinity," from
which also the other quotations are drawn.]
VI
THE WOMAN FEEDING HENS
In walking through a French village, we get as little idea of the home
life of the people as if we were in a large town or city. The houses
usually border directly upon the street, and the spaces between are
closed with high walls, shutting in the thoroughfare as completely as
in a city "block." Behind these barriers each family carries on its
domestic affairs in the privacy of its own domain. The _cour_, or
dooryard, is the enclosure adjoining the house, and is surrounded on
all sides by buildings or walls. Beyond this the more prosperous have
also a garden or orchard, likewise surrounded by high walls.
In the dooryard are performed many of the duties both of the barn and
the house. Here the cows are milked, the horses groomed, the sheep
sheared, and the poultry fed. Here, too, is the children's playground,
safe from the dangers of the street, and within hearing of the
mother's voice.