To those who asked him why he did not go to Italy for his subjects,
Georges Michel would answer: “The man who can not find enough to paint
during his whole life in a circuit of four miles is in reality no artist.”
This artistic creed was nothing less than revolutionary at that time, in
the early days of the XIX century, when the landscape painter regarded
nature as unworthy of his brush unless it was bedecked with ancient
temples and peopled with gods and goddesses, or at least suggested Italy
or some distant land. Georges Michel lived on the heights of Montmartre
in Paris. He walked out into the country and painted what he saw. His
landscapes are actual studies of nature painted in the open air. As one
of the first painters of paysage intime, Michel was a forerunner of
Rousseau and the men of 1830. His narrow, subdued scheme of color
establishes his relationship with the great Dutch masters of the XVII
century. In France, however, his was pioneer work; he did not cater to
the popular demand, and it was not until the World Exhibition in 1889 that
his genius was generally recognized.—Gift of James J. Hill.
[Child with Cherries. Gillaume Adolphe Bouguereau, 1825-1905]