Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), French genre and landscape painter, known for his paintings of rustic life. He was born into a peasant family in Gruchy, studied art in Cherbourg, and in 1837 began to study with Paul Delaroche in Paris. The theme of his early work consists of mythological scenes, genre subjects, and portraits.

In 1849, after 12 years in Paris and Normandy, Millet went to Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where artists of the Barbizon School had gathered. It was in this period that he began to paint the scenes of rural life with which he is associated. These include The Gleaners (1857) and The Angelus (1857-1859), both in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, and The Sower (1850) and Potato Planters (1862), both in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1871 he was elected to the Fédération des Artistes.

Millet's strength was as a draughtsman rather than a colourist, so that his figures have strong physical presence although his palette is unadventurous. His paintings do not romanticize rustic life, but give it a certain solemnity and even sentimentality.