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Jean millet short biography. Jean Francois Millet - French painter

Jean millet short biography. Jean Francois Millet - French painter

04.03.2020

19th century French painter

Jean Francois Millet(French: ; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in the French countryside. Millet is known for his scenes of peasants; it can be classified as part of the Realism art movement.

Life and work

the youth

Sheepfold. In this painting by Mill, the waning moon casts a mysterious light across the plain between the villages of Barbizon and Sham. Walters Art Museum.

Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aime-Henriette Adelaide Henry Mille, members of a rural community in the village of Gruchy, in Greville-The Hague (Normandy), near the coast. Under the guidance of two village priests—one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux—Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and contemporary authors. But soon he had to help his father with farm work; because Millais was the eldest of the sons. Thus, all the farmer's work was familiar to him: mow, hay, tie sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs would return in his later art. This stopped when he was 18 and sent by his father to Cherbourg in 1833 to study with a portrait painter named Paul Dumouchel. By 1835 he was studying full-time with Lucien-Théophile Langlois, a pupil of the Baron Gros, at Cherbourg. A scholarship secured by Langlois and others allowed Millet to move to Paris in 1837, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts with Paul Delaroche. In 1839, his fellowship was terminated and his first introduction to the salon was rejected.

Paris

After his first painting, a portrait, was accepted at the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg to start a career as a portrait painter. However, the following year he married Pauline-Virginie Ono and they moved to Paris. After being rejected at the Salon of 1843 and Pauline's death by consumption, Millet returned to Cherbourg again. In 1845 Millet moved to Le Havre with Catherine Lemaire, whom he would marry in a civil ceremony in 1853; they would have nine children and remain together for the rest of Millet's life. In Le Havre he painted portraits and small genre pieces for several months before moving back to Paris.

It was in Paris in the mid-1840s that Millet befriended Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacquet and Théodore Rousseau, artists who, like Mill, would become associated with the Barbizon school; Honoré Daumier, whose drafting rate would influence Millet's subsequent provision of peasant objects; and Alfred Sensier, a government bureaucrat who would become a lifelong supporter and eventual biographer of the artist. In 1847 his first success came with a salon painting exhibition oedipus demolished from wood, and in 1848 his winnower was bought by the government.

The Captivity of the Jews in Babylon, Mill's most ambitious work at the time, was unveiled at the Salon of 1848 but despised by art historians and the public. The painting eventually disappeared shortly thereafter, leading historians believe that Millet destroyed it. In 1984, scientists from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston X-rayed Millet's 1870 painting young cowgirl looking for minor changes and found that it was painted over captivity. It is now believed that Millet re-canvased when materials were in short supply during the Franco-Prussian War.

Barbizon

In 1849, millet painted harvesters, commission for the state. In this year's salon, he showed Shepherd boy sitting on the edge of the forest, a very small oil painting that marked a departure from previous idealized pastoral subjects, in favor of a more realistic and personal approach. In June of that year, he settled in Barbizon with Catherine and the children.

In 1850, Millet entered into an agreement with Sensier, who provided the artist with materials and money in exchange for drawings and paintings, while Millet was simultaneously free to continue selling work to other buyers as well. In this year's salon, he showed mower And sower, his first major masterpiece and the earliest of the iconic trio of paintings that would include harvester And Angelus .

From 1850 to 1853, Millet worked for Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz), paintings, he will consider it the most important, and on which he worked the longest. Conceived to compete with his heroes Michelangelo and Poussin, it is also a painting that marked its transition from portraying the symbolic imagery of peasant life to that of contemporary social conditions. It was the only painting he had ever dated, and was the first work to garner his official recognition, a second-class medal at the 1853 Salon.

The Gleaners

This is one of Millet's most well known paintings, harvesters(1857). While Millet was walking the field around Barbizon, one subject returned to his pencil and brush for seven years - picking up -the centuries-old right of poor women and children to remove bits of grain left in the fields after the harvest. He found a themed eternal one, connected to stories from the Old Testament. In 1857 he introduced painting harvesters into the salon to Enthusiasm, even hostile, public.

(Earlier versions include a vertical composition, painted in 1854, in an etching of 1855-56, which directly foreshadow the horizontal format of the painting now in the Musée d'Orsay.)

The warm golden light suggests something sacred and eternal in this daily scene where the struggle for survival takes place. Through years of preparatory research, Millet is seen as the best way to convey the meaning of repetition and weariness in the everyday life of peasants. Lines are traced along each woman's back lead to the ground and then back in a repetitive motion, identical to their endless, backbreaking toil. Along the horizon, the setting sun silhouettes the farm with its bountiful grain stacks, in contrast to the large shadowy figures in the foreground. The dark homespun gowns at the Gleaners cut steady shapes against a golden field, giving every woman a noble, monumental strength.

Angelus

The painting was commissioned by Thomas Gold Appleton, an American art collector based in Boston, Massachusetts. Appleton had previously studied with another Mill, the Barbizon artist Troyon. It was completed during the summer of 1857. Millet added a bell tower and changed the original title of the work, Prayer for the potato harvest V Angelus when the buyer failed to take possession in 1859. Displayed to the public for the first time in 1865, the painting was changed several times, increasing only slightly in price, as some felt the artist's political sympathies were suspect. After Mill's death ten years later, an auction war between the US and France followed, ending a few years later with a price of 800,000 gold francs.

The discrepancy between the apparent value of a painting and the poor class of the surviving Millais family was a major impetus in the invention of the prerogative de luxe, intended to compensate artists or their heirs when works were oversold.

Later years

Despite the mixed reviews of the paintings he exhibited at the salon, Millet's reputation and success grew through the 1860s. Early in the decade, he contracted to paint 25 works in exchange for a monthly stipend for the next three years, and in 1865, another patron, Emile Gavet, began putting in pastel for a collection that eventually included 90 works. In 1867 the World's Fair hosted a major display of his work, with Gleaners , Angelus And potato planters exhibited among the paintings. The following year, Frederick Hartmann commissioned Four Seasons for 25,000 francs, and Millais was named Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.

In 1870, Millet was elected to the jury of the Salon. Later that year, he and his family left the Franco-Prussian War, moving to Cherbourg and Greville and did not return to Barbizon until late 1871. His last years were marked by financial success and increased official recognition, but he was unable to carry out government commission due to ill health. On January 3, 1875, he married Catherine in a religious ceremony. Millet died on January 20, 1875.

heritage

Millet was an important inspiration for Vincent van Gogh, especially in the early period. Millet and his work are mentioned many times in Vincent's letters to his brother Theo. Millet's later landscapes would serve as influential points of reference for Claude Monet's paintings of the coast of Normandy; its structural and symbolic content was influenced by Georges Seurat as well.

Millet is the protagonist of Mark Twain's play He is dead?(1898), in which he is depicted as a struggling young artist who fakes his own death in order to win fame and fortune. Most of the details about Mill in the game are fictitious.

Painting by Millais L "Homme la houe inspired the famous poem "The Man with the Hoe" (1898) by Edwin Markham. His poems also inspired the collection of the American poet David Middleton. Grouchy's Habitual Peacefulness: Poems after a Photograph by Jean-Francois Millet (2005).

Angelus frequently reproduced in the 19th and 20th centuries. Salvador Dali was fascinated by this work, and wrote an analysis of it, The tragic myth of Angelus millet. Instead of viewing it as a work of the spirit world, the Dalí believed they carried reports of repressed sexual aggression. Dalí also believes that the two figures were praying for their buried child, and not for the Angelus. Dalí was so insistent about this that the x-ray was eventually made from canvas, confirming his suspicions: the painting contains a painted over geometric shape strikingly similar to a coffin. However, it remains unclear whether Millet has changed his mind about the painting's meaning, or even if the shape is actually a coffin.

Gallery

paintings by Jean-Francois Millet

Exit to work , 1851-53

Shepherd Steal His Flock, early 1860s

potato planters , 1861

Goose Girl , 1863

Champa, Kermit S. The Rise of Landscape Painting in France: Corot to Monet. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991. ISBN
Honor, H. and Fleming, J. World Art History. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2009. ISBN
Murphy, Alexander R. Mill. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984. ISBN
Stokes, Simon. Art and copyright. Hart Publishing, 2001. ISBN
Plaideux, Hugo. "L" après Inventaire décès et al la DECLARATION de succession de Mille", in Revue de la Manche, v. 53, FASC. 212, 2e trim. 2011, pp. 2-38.
Plaideux, Hugo. "Une ENSEIGNE de vétérinaire cherbourgeois peinte par Millet en 1841", in Bulletin de la Francaise d "Société Histoire de la Médecine et des sciences vétérinaires, p° 11, 2011, pp. 61-75.
Lucien Lepoittevin. Jean-Francois Millet reason catalog en 2 volumes - Paris 1971/1973
Lucien Lepoitevin. "Le Viquet - Retour sur le Premieres pas: un millet white fish" - N ° 139 Pâques 2003 - ISSN 0764-7948
E Moreau-Nélaton - Monographie de links, Mille Raconte nominal lui-même- 3 volumes - Paris 1921
Lucien Lepoittevin. Jean Francois Millet (Au delà de l "Angelus)- Ed de Monza - 2002 - (ISBN)
L. Lepoittevin. Mill: Images and other Symboles, Éditions Isoète Cherbourg 1990 (

Jean François Millet entered the history of world painting as a master of realism, although the artist's works are comparable in their penetration to the works of novelists. On all his canvases, one can notice the presence of a special glow that comes not from human figures or objects, but from the picture itself. Modern criticism called this play of lighting in Millet's paintings the light of life.

Childhood and learning

He was born on 10/4/1814 in the family of a wealthy peasant in the village of Gryushi, which is located in France. Until the age of 18 he worked in agriculture.

The artist grew up in a family that included two church ministers at once, a father and an uncle. For this reason, his first education was deeply spiritual, although much attention was also paid to literature and, later, painting.

Parents supported Millet's talent and in 1837 he joined the workshop of Paul Delaroche, where he stayed for two years. However, relations with the mentor did not work out, and soon he returned from Paris to Cherbourg.

The beginning of creative activity

A year later, Millais married Polina Virginia Ono and returned to the capital with her.

Although he regularly exhibited his work at the Salon from 1840, it was not until 1848 that his real fame came to him, when he changed the subject (in particular, leaving portraiture) and focused on the idea that became the leitmotif of his work.

In 1849 Francois leaves Paris for the village of Barbizon. In the morning he works in the fields, and in the evening he paints.

Millet devoted his main works to scenes of peasant labor and life. In them, he reflected his understanding of the life of this estate, the severity of their situation and forced poverty.

In his own words, a native of a peasant family, he has always been and remains so.

Fundamental ideas of creativity

In 1857, Millet completed his most famous painting, The Gatherers. The approval with which the critics met his work was unexpected even for the artist himself.

Millet managed to get into the tone of the general mood created by the political events of that time.

He continued to work in the same genre, and two years later the no less famous Angelus appeared. She repeated the message of the artist in The Gatherers, but also contained the answer that Millet himself offered.

The life that he portrayed was filled with humility and faith, able to overcome the difficult everyday life of the peasants.

Millais also painted for the government, beginning with the first serious works in the domestic genre in 1848, as well as "Peasant Woman Herding a Cow" (1859), it is noteworthy that it was this that led him to change direction and brought him recognition.

Millais did not paint from nature, his works were created entirely from memory. From 1849 until the end of his life, Millais lived in Barbizon, the name of this place gave its name to the school, of which he became one of the founders.

Last years

In the mid-1860s, he turned to landscape painting, striving to express the unity of man with nature in his works.

In the last years of his work, such paintings as "Winter Landscape with Crows" (1866) and "Spring" (1868-1873) were created.

These works by Millet indicated the state of the search in which he was. For the artist, these were attempts to find and reflect in the pictures of nature harmony and justice, which he did not find in people's lives.

Millet died in 1875 in Barbizon, in the vicinity of which he was buried.

Although his works are of extreme importance in art for all artistic movements. He painted genre compositions, landscapes, created several portraits. Millet's painting "The Sower" inspired Van Gogh to create his compositions on a similar theme. And his "Angelus" was a favorite picture, a bright representative of surrealism. Then he turned to the images of "Angelus" all his life.

1. Biography. Childhood

Born in the village of Gryushi, near the city of Cherbourg, it is on the banks of the English Channel. He learned to read and write at the school at the village church. Like all peasant children, he helped his family a lot in the field. Later he writes: "The nature of this region left an indelible impression on my soul, because it retained such an original creation that I sometimes felt like a contemporary of Brueghel (meaning Pieter Brueghel the Old, an outstanding artist from the Netherlands of the 16th century) ".

2. Study in Cherbourg

Noticing the talent in the child, the parents did everything possible to get their son out of the village. He was sent to Cherbourg, where he was placed in the studio of the painter Moschel, a local portrait painter. François's success led him to another studio to the artist Langlois. He believed so much in the student who received a scholarship for him from the Municipality of Cherbourg and the right to study in Paris. So the former redneck moved to the capital.

Once upon a time, his grandmother bequeathed him not to draw anything shameful, even when it was asked by the king himself. The grandson fulfilled the grandmother's will - and did a lot of useful things for the art of France, and indeed the whole world.

3. Portraits by Francois Millet

He is a portraitist by profession. He took and painted portraits. But he felt unhappy. In addition, in Paris, he studied with the historical painter Delaroche. He did not feel pleasure either from Delaroche or from Paris of that time. And so, because Paris is a desert for the poor. He rested his soul in the Louvre Museum, because it was necessary to gain experience that no one could give him, except for the old masters of art.

Polina Ono is the artist's wife. They got married in . Four years later, Polina will die of consumption (tuberculosis). Not everything was in order with the paintings - no one bought them. The artist lived on money from commissioned portraits.

4. Barbizon village

We didn't go there for inspiration. It was just cheap to live there and it's not far from Paris. The village is located in the Forest of Fontainebleau. Millet remembered that the peasant worked the land in Barbizon, like his father, and painted pictures in rare free hours. They are slowly being sold. And even the Minister of the Interior bought one of the prices, ten times the price of the artist.

But the number of outstanding landscape painters here was so great that the village became famous all over the world. Painted landscapes and Millet. And he felt that he was becoming a master, unlike anyone else. And in art this, after abilities and efficiency, is the main thing.

Among foreign artists, Millet was friends with the English virtuoso Frederick Leighton, remaining in no way like him.

5. Landscapes of Millais

6. Rural France in the 19th century

7. Gatherers of brushwood. Little masterpiece

It is almost impossible to find large paintings in Mille: the length of the famous canvas "Angelus" - 66 cm, "gatherers" - 111 cm, "Rest in the harvest" - 116 cm. And these, it seems, are the most.

The “collector of brushwood”, only 37 by 45 cm, became a small masterpiece. No one has painted French women like that yet. Two figurines are trying to extract dry wood stuck. The work worthy of doing to cattle is done by two peasant women themselves, without waiting for help. This is that terrible world where you simply can’t wait for help.

The researchers were surprised - there is neither a spectacular composition nor bright colors. Nobody gets killed and nobody screams. And the audience grabbed at the heart. Millet turned the face of bourgeois society to the people, to the excessive labor of the peasants, to sympathy for those who worked hard and terribly on the land. He converted society (and the art of France) to humanism. And this covered both the small size of Millet's paintings and the absence of coloristic treasures, theatrical gestures, screams, etc. The bitter truth of today was returning to art.

His call is heard. Milla became an authority on painting. And as always, some shouted about his politicization, others saw in him an exclusivity, a phenomenon. His paintings began to buy well.

Once upon a time, Tretyakov acquired "faggots" . No, not Pavel, he bought and supported Russian artists, and then presented Moscow with a gallery that bears his name. Acquired by Pavel's brother - Sergei Tretyakov, collected works by European artists. He usually sent money to his agent in Paris, and he, at his own discretion, seeing something worthy, bought and sent it to Moscow. Both the discretion and the purchase proved to be very successful. In Moscow, this is almost the only (except for one more landscape) plot painting by Millet. But it's a masterpiece.

8. Two recognized masterpieces: "Angelus" and "collector of ears"

9. Etchings by Millet

Millet is one of the masters who turned to the creation of engravings. This was not the main thing in his work, so he made several experiments in different techniques: six lithographs, two heliographs, six woodcuts. In total he worked in the technique of etching. Among them there are both repetitions of his paintings (etching "the harvester of ears"), and quite independent plots. The etching "Death Takes a Peasant Lumberjack" was extremely successful, which recalled the masterpiece of the 16th-century German master Hans Holbein from the "Dance of Death" series with high artistic quality.

Millet searched for a composition for a long time. The Louvre Museum retains two drawings by Francois Millet with the first search for composition. Another drawing came to the Hermitage in 1929. The composition of the latter formed the basis of both an etching and a painting on the same theme (New Carlsberg Glypkoteka, Copenhagen).

10. Countries where Millet's works are kept

Sources

Dario Durb?, Anna M. Damigella: Corot und die Schule von Barbizon. Pawlak, Herrsching 1988, ISBN 3-88199-430-0
Andr? Ferigier: Jean-François Millet. Die Entdeckung des 19. Jahrhunderts. Skira-Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-88447-047-7
Ingrid Hessler: Jean-François Millet. Landschaftsdarstellung als Medium individueller Religiosit?t. Dissertation, Universität München 1983
Estelle M. Hurll: Jean Francois Millet. A Collection of Fifteen Pictures and a Portrait of the Painter, with Introduction and Interpretation, New Bedford, MA, 1900. ISBN 1-4142-4081-3
Lucien Lepoittevin: Jean Fran?ois Millet - Au-del? de l "Ang?lus. Editions de Monza. Paris 2002, ISBN 978-2-908071-93-1
Lucien Lepoittevin: Jean François Millet - Images et Symboles.?ditions ISO?TE Cherbourg 1990, ISBN 2-905385-32-4
Alexandra R. Murphy (Hrsg.): Jean-François Millet, drawn into the light. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. 1999, ISBN 0-87846-237-6
Alfred Sensier: La vie et l "?uvre de Jean-Fran?ois Millet. Editions des Champs, Bricqueboscq 2005, ISBN 2-910138-17-8 (neue Auflage des Werks von 1881)
Andrea Meyer: Deutschland and Millet. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin und Mönchen 2009. ISBN 978-3-422-06855-1
One hundred etchings of the 16th-19th centuries from the collection of the State Hermitage.L-M, 1964 (rus)
The Pushkin Museum, art gallery catalog, M, Visual Arts, 1986 (rus)

France has always been famous for its painters, sculptors, writers and other artists. The heyday of painting in this European country fell on the XVII-XIX centuries.

One of the brightest representatives of French fine arts is Jean-Francois Millet, who specialized in creating paintings of rural life and landscapes. This is a very bright representative of his genre, whose paintings are still highly valued.

Jean Francois Millet: biography

The future painter was born on 10/04/1814 near the city of Cherbourg, in a tiny village called Grouchy. Although his family was peasant, they lived quite prosperously.

Even at an early age, Jean began to show the ability to paint. The family, where no one had previously had the opportunity to leave their native village and build a career in any other area than the peasantry, the son's talent was received with great enthusiasm.

Parents supported the young man in his desire to study painting and paid for his education. In 1837, Jean-Francois Millet moved to Paris, where for two years he mastered the basics of painting. His mentor is Paul Delaroche.

Already in 1840, the novice artist demonstrated his paintings for the first time in one of the salons. At that time, this could already be perceived as a considerable success, especially for a young painter.

Creative activity

Jean-François Millet did not like Paris too much, he yearned for rural scenery and lifestyle. Therefore, in 1849, he decides to leave the capital, moving to Barbizon, which was much calmer and more comfortable than noisy Paris.

Here the artist lived the rest of his life. He himself considered himself a peasant, and therefore was drawn to the village.

That is why his work is dominated by plots of peasant life and rural landscapes. He not only understood and empathized with ordinary farmers and shepherds, but he himself was part of this class.

He, like no one else, knew how hard it is for ordinary people, how difficult their work is and what a beggarly lifestyle they lead. He admired these people, of which he considered himself a part.

Jean Francois Millet: works

The artist was very talented and hardworking. During his life he created many paintings, many of which today are considered real masterpieces of the genre. One of the most famous creations of Jean-Francois Millet is The Gatherers (1857). The picture became famous for reflecting the severity, poverty and hopelessness of ordinary peasants.

It depicts women bending over the ears, because otherwise there is no way to collect the remnants of the crop. Despite the fact that the picture demonstrated the realities of peasant life, it caused mixed feelings among the public. Someone considered it a masterpiece, while others spoke sharply negatively. Because of this, the artist decided to soften his style a bit, showing the more aesthetic side of village life.

The canvas "Angelus" (1859) demonstrates in all its glory the talent of Jean-Francois Millet. The painting depicts two people (husband and wife) who, in the evening twilight, pray for people who have left this world. The soft brownish halftones of the landscape, the rays of the setting sun give the picture a special warmth and comfort.

In the same 1859, Millet painted the painting "Peasant Woman Herding a Cow", which was created by special order from the French government.

At the end of his career, Jean-Francois Millet began to pay more and more attention to landscapes. The domestic genre faded into the background. Perhaps he was influenced by the Barbizon school of painting.

In literary works

Jean Francois Millet became one of the heroes of the story "Is he alive or dead?" written by Mark Twain. According to the plot, several artists decided to embark on an adventure. This was driven by poverty. They decide that one of them is faking his own death, having publicized it well beforehand. After his death, the prices for the artist's paintings will have to soar in price, and there will be enough for everyone to live. It was Francois Millet who became the one who played his own death. Moreover, the artist was personally one of those who carried his own coffin. They achieved their goal.

This story also became the basis for the dramatic work "Talents and the Dead", which is now being shown at the Moscow Theater. A. S. Pushkin.

Contribution to culture

The artist had a huge impact on French and world art in general. His paintings are highly valued today, and many are exhibited in major museums and galleries in Europe and the world.

Today he is considered one of the most prominent representatives of the everyday village genre and a great landscape painter. He has a lot of followers, and many artists who create in a similar genre, in one way or another, are guided by his works.

The painter is rightfully considered the pride of his homeland, and his paintings are the property of national art.

Conclusion

Jean Francois Millet, whose paintings are real masterpieces of painting, made an invaluable contribution to European painting and world art. He rightfully ranks with the greatest artists. Although he did not become the ancestor of a new style, did not experiment with technology and did not seek to shock the public, his paintings revealed the essence of peasant life, demonstrating all the hardships and joys of the life of village people without embellishment.

Such frankness in canvases, sensuality and truthfulness can not be found in every painter, even a famous and eminent one. He simply painted pictures of what he saw with his own eyes, and not only saw, but felt himself. He grew up in this environment and knew peasant life from the inside out.

Millet Jean Francois

Both classicism and romanticism were far removed from modern life, as they idealized the past and mostly depicted scenes from ancient times.

In the middle of the 19th century, the leading place in the fine arts of France was occupied by the direction of realism, which was most interested in modernity, the everyday life of ordinary people. Realists sought to convey real people, nature - without distortion and embellishment. At the same time, they reflected, of course, the vices of modern life, trying to help eliminate and correct them. This critical trend in art is called critical realism, which flourished in the 2nd half of the 19th century.

Realism in French painting made itself known primarily in the landscape of the artists of the so-called "Barbizon group", named after the village of Barbizon near Paris, where the artists lived and painted for a long time.

At one time lived in Barbizon Jean-Francois Millet, a very famous French realist painter. He was born into a peasant environment and forever retained a connection with the land. The peasant world is Millet's main genre. But the artist did not come to him immediately. From his native Normandy in 1837 and in 1844 he came to Paris, where he became famous for his portraits and small paintings on biblical and ancient subjects. However, Millet developed as a master of the peasant theme in the 40s, when he arrived in Barbizon and became close to the artists of this school.

From this time begins the mature period of Millet's work. From now until the end of his creative days, the peasant becomes his hero. Such a choice of hero and theme did not meet the tastes of the bourgeois public, so Millet suffered material need all his life, but did not change the theme. In small-sized paintings, Millet created a generalized monumental image of a worker of the earth ("The Sower" 1850). He showed rural labor as a natural state of man, as a form of his being. In labor, the connection of man with nature, which ennobles him, is manifested. Human labor multiplies life on earth. This idea is permeated with the paintings "Gatherers", 1857, "Angelus", 1859.

Millet's painting is characterized by extreme laconicism, the selection of the main thing, which makes it possible to convey the universal meaning in the simplest, everyday pictures of everyday life. Millet achieves the impression of the solemn simplicity of calm peaceful labor with the help of three-dimensional images and even colors.

Most of Millet's works are imbued with a sense of high humanity, peace and tranquility.

The truthful and honest art of Millet, glorifying the working man, paved the way for the further development of this theme in the art of the second half of the 19th century.

Boiler (1853-54)

"Angelus" (Evening Prayer)

Before us is the descending evening, the last rays of the setting sun illuminate the figures of a peasant and his wife, who for a moment abandoned their work at the sound of the evening bell. The muted color scheme is made up of soft, harmoniously composed reddish-brown, gray, blue, almost blue and lilac tones. The dark silhouettes of figures with bowed heads, clearly visible above the horizon line, further enhance the epic sound of the composition. "Angelus" is not just an evening prayer, it is a prayer for the dead, for all those who worked on this earth.

Man with a hoe

In contrast to the images of high humanity, peace, peace, we have a different image - here the artist expressed the utmost fatigue, exhaustion, exhaustion from hard physical labor, but he also managed to show the enormous dormant forces of the giant worker.

Gatherers of Ears (1857)

Millet's most famous work. This is a sad picture of poverty and sad labor. In the field illuminated by the last rays of the evening sun, the harvest is coming to an end. Bread collected in heaps, not yet taken away from the field, sparkles with gold. A large cart is filled with bread to take it to the current. This whole picture, full of golden bread, a freshly harvested field, creates a mood of peace and tranquility. And, as if in contrast with this contentment and peace, in the foreground of the picture are the figures of three women gathering rare, remaining spikelets on a compressed field in order to thresh at least a handful of flour from them. Their hard-working backs are heavily bent, hardened fingers with difficulty grasp thin, fragile spikelets. Clumsy clothing hides age, it seems that hard work and poverty equalized both young and old. The artist uses a wide range of colors in the picture - from golden brown to reddish green.

Peasant Woman Guarding a Cow (1859)