The Story Told in This Picture.
The Lives of the French Peasants.
Comparison of Labor in Those Days and at the Present Time.
Millet’s Paintings—Subjects and Purpose.
Reasons Why I Would Consider This Picture a Masterpiece.
Life of the Artist.
=The story of the artist.= In the little country village of Gruchy,
France, dwelt a family of peasants who tilled the land and lived by the
sweat of their brows. There were the grandmother, father, mother, and
eight children. The eldest son was Jean François Millet, the artist who
painted this picture. His mother worked out in the fields with the
father, even as the women in this picture are working, so little Jean
François was brought up by his grandmother, who was also his godmother.
It was she who named him Jean for his father and François after the good
Saint Francis. She was a deeply religious woman, and almost the only
pictures Millet saw in his boyhood were those in the Bible, which he
copied again and again, drawing them upon the stone walls with white
chalk. This pleased the grandmother, and she encouraged him all she
could.
When Millet was six years old he was sent to school. At twelve he began
to study Latin with a priest in the village who was very fond of him and
taught him for the pleasure of it. From this time on his studies were
frequently interrupted by his work on the farm, for as eldest son he was
the one the father relied upon most.
The elder Millet had a keen appreciation of the beauty in nature and
often, as they worked, he would call his son’s attention to the beauties
around them. He would say, “Look at that tree—how large and beautiful!
It is as beautiful as a flower,” or “See, that house half buried by the
field is good; it seems to me that it ought to be drawn that way.” Then
sometimes he would try to model a figure from a piece of clay or cut an
animal or plant from wood. So it was not much wonder that the son, too,
tried to draw animals, the barn, the garden, and various objects around
him.
When he was eighteen years old he drew his first great picture. As he
was coming home from church he met an old man whose back was bent over a
cane as he walked slowly along. Something about the bent figure appealed
to Millet so strongly that he had a great desire to draw a portrait of
him. So, taking some charcoal from his pocket, he drew on a stone wall a
picture of the old man. People passing by recognized the old man in
Millet’s picture and were much pleased.
His father, too, was delighted, for he had once wished to be an artist
himself. He now resolved that his son should have a chance. A family
council was held and all agreed that Millet must be sent to some good
artist to study. So the father took him to an artist (Mouchel) in
Cherbourg to whom he showed some of Millet’s drawings. At first the
artist would not believe the boy had drawn them, but, finally convinced,
he was very glad to have this talented boy for his pupil.
Millet had studied with him only two months when his father died, and he
was obliged to return home to take his father’s place on the farm as
best he could. But the people of the village, who were much interested
in his paintings, resolved to help him. So they raised money to send him
back to Cherbourg to study, and finally to the great city of Paris.
There he studied under Delaroche, a fashionable painter of that day. The
other students could not understand Millet, for, peasant that he was, he
rarely spoke, allowing others to make all the advances and answering
scarcely a word. However, if they went too far he could use his fists to
such good advantage that they soon left him quite alone. He was always
known among them as “the man of the woods.”
They soon found out that he could draw and paint, too, and his work
received much praise. Still his pictures did not sell, and Millet’s life
in Paris was a continuous struggle with poverty.
One of the reasons that his pictures did not sell was because he chose
his models from the lower classes and represented them in their humble
daily tasks. His critics urged him to paint, instead, some beautiful
girl or fine-looking man from the village or city. To this he replied:
“Beauty does not dwell in the face; it radiates forth from the whole
figure and appears in the suitableness of the action to the subject.
Your pretty peasants would be ill suited for picking up wood, for
gleaning in the fields of August, for drawing water from a well. Beauty
is expression.”
In spite of the fact that he could barely earn a living in Paris, Millet
remained there many years. He was married and his children were born
there. Finally he left Paris with his wife and children and settled at
Barbizon, a small village in France, where he spent the rest of his
life. Many descriptions have been written and many pictures painted of
the modest white stone cottage in which Millet’s last years were spent.
It was not until these last few years of his life that Millet ceased to
be wretchedly poor, for then his pictures were at last appreciated and
he received the profit and honor that were his due.
He died at Barbizon, January 20, 1875.
The world of to-day has forgotten most of the popular artists of that
time, and their pretty models, but Millet’s peasants live on. Once
little valued, now the great truths which they represent have made them
almost priceless.
=Questions about the artist.= What is the artist’s full name? Tell about
his home life. Who took care of Millet when he was a child? What did his
mother do? Who named him, and why? What pictures did he study? When was
he sent to school? What did he study with the priest? Why were his
studies interrupted so often? How did his father help him with his
drawing? Tell about the old man with the cane. Who recognized his
portrait? What happened because of his success? Why did the artist think
Millet could not have painted the pictures? Why did Millet remain so
short a time with this artist? What did the people in the village do for
him? Why was it the students in Paris could not understand Millet? What
name did the students give him? Why did his pictures not sell? What did
the critics say about them? What else did Millet paint? Where did he
finally make his home? When did he receive recognition?
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