1814 - 1875
France

Millet was born at Grouchy (Manche) and was a pupil of  Paul Delaroche 
in Paris by 1837. For some years he painted chiefly idylls in imitation 
of 18th-century French painters. Becoming, like  Daumier, increasingly 
moved by the spectacle of social injustice, Millet turned to peasant subjects and 
won his first popular success at the Salon of 1848 with The Winnower.

From the following year he was chiefly active at Barbizon and associated with 
the Barbizon school of landscape  painters. His work was influenced by 
Dutch paintings of the 17th century and by the work of  Chardin, and 
was influential in Holland on Israëls and on the early style of Van Gogh.

 The Whisper
Jean-François MILLET
about 1846

The Winnower
Jean-François MILLET
about 1847-8

Landscape …, Jean-François MILLET (Follower), after 1870

Landscape with Buildings

Jean-François MILLET1 (Follower)
Painted 1837-75

Signed or inscribed: F. Millet,
followed by an illegible date.
Canvas, 36.8 x 44.5 cm 
Bequeathed by Sir Victor Wellesley, 1954.

There is an inscription 
on fragments of paper on 
the reverse: 'des environs de/ Fontainebleau par/. . .llet', 
which implies the picture 
is probably of somewhere 
around Fontainebleau.

Jean-François Millet (October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875) was a painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. He is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers. He can be categorized as part of the movement termed "naturalism", but also as part of the movement of "realism".

Born in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague (Normandy), Millet moved to Paris in 1838. He received his academic schooling with Paul Dumouchel, and with Jérome Langlois in Cherbourg. After 1840 he turned away from the official painting style and came under the influence of Honoré Daumier. In 1849 he withdrew to Barbizon to apply himself to painting many, often poetic, peasant scenes.