MILLET, JEAN FRANCOIS (1814-1875) , French painter, who came of a peasant family, was born on Oct. 4, 1814 in the hamlet of Gruchy, near Greville (La Manche). His boyhood was passed working in his father's fields, but the sight of the engravings in an old illustrated Bible set him drawing. Two drawings were shown to a painter at Cherbourg named Mouchel, who at once accepted him as a pupil; but shortly after (1835) Millet's father died, and the eldest son, with heroic devotion, took his place at home, nor did he return to his art until encouraged by his own family. After a short time spent at Cherbourg under a master named Langlois he started for Paris. The council-general of the department had granted him a sum of 600 francs, and the town council promised an annual pension of 400, but in spite of friendly help and introductions Millet experienced great difficulties. The system of the Ecole des Beaux Arts was hateful to him, but after much hesitation, he decided to enter an official studio—that of Delaroche. The master recognized his ability, and arranged for his free admission to the studio, but he tried in vain to make him take the approved direction, and lessons ended with "Eh, bien, allez a votre guise, vous etes si nouveau pour moi que je ne veux rien vous dire." At last Millet withdrew, and with his friend Marolle started in a little studio in the Rue de l'Est. He continued to study hard whilst he provided bread by painting portraits at 1 o or 15 francs apiece and producing small "pastiches" of Watteau and Boucher. In 1840 Millet went back to Greville, where he painted "Sailors Mending a Sail" and a few other pictures of Cherbourg life.
His first success was obtained in 1844, when his "Milkwoman" and "Lesson in Riding" (pastel) attracted notice at the Salon, and friendly artists presented themselves at his lodgings only to learn that his wife had just died, and that he himself had disap peared. Millet was at Cherbourg; there he remarried, but having amassed a few hundred francs he went back to Paris and presented his "St. Jerome" at the Salon of 1845. This picture was rejected and exists no longer, for Millet, short of canvas, painted over it "Oedipus Unbound," a work which during the following year was the object of violent criticism. He was, however, no longer alone; Diaz, Eugene Tourneux, Rousseau, and other men of note sup ported him by their confidence and friendship, and his second wife, Catherine Lemaire, bore poverty with dignity and gave courage to her husband. To this date belong Millet's "Golden Age," "Bird Nesters," "Young Girl and Lamb," and "Bathers"; to the "Bathers" (Louvre) succeeded "The Mother Asking Alms," "The Workman's Monday," and "The Winnower." This last work, exhibited in 1848, was highly praised, but re mained unsold until Ledru Rollin, informed of the painter's dis tress, gave him 500 francs for it. Rollin also gave Millet a com
mission which enabled him to leave Paris for Barbizon, on the skirts of the forest of Fontainebleau. There he settled in a three roomed cottage for the rest of his life—twenty-seven years, in which he wrought out the perfect story of that peasant life of which he alone has given a "complete impression." Jules Breton has coloured the days of toil with sentiment ; others, like Courbet, whose eccentric "Funeral at Ornans" attracted more notice at the Salon of 185o than Millet's "Sowers and Binders," have treated similar subjects as a vehicle for protest against social misery; Millet alone, a peasant and a miserable one himself, saw true, neither softening nor exaggerating what he saw. To a friend he expressed his resolve to break with mythological subjects. In 1852 he produced "Girls Sewing," "Man Spreading Manure"; 1853, "The Reapers"; 1854, "Church at Greville"; 1855—the year of the International Exhibition, at which he received a medal of sec ond class—"Peasant Grafting a Tree" ; 1857, "The Gleaners"; 1859, "The Angelus," "The Woodcutter and Death"; 186o, "Sheep Shearing"; 1861, "Woman Shearing Sheep," "Woman Feeding Child"; 1862, "Potato Planters," "Winter and the Crows"; 1863, "Man with Hoe," "Woman Carding"; 1864, "Shepherds and Flock," "Peasants Bring Home a Calf Born in the Fields"; 1869, "Knitting Lesson"; 187o, "Buttermaking"; 1871, "November— recollection of Gruchy." Something of the imposing unity of his work was, no doubt, due to an extraordinary power of memory, which enabled Millet to paint without a model; he could recall with precision the attitudes or gestures which he proposed to represent. Thus he could count on presenting free from afterthoughts the vivid impressions which he had first received. Those impressions were always of a serious and often of a noble order, to which the character of his execution responded so perfectly that even a "Washerwoman at her Tub" will show the grand action of a Medea. The drawing of this sub ject is reproduced in Souvenirs de Barbizon, a pamphlet in which M. Piedagnel has recorded a visit paid to Millet in 1864. His cir cumstances were then less evil, after struggles as severe as those endured in Paris. A contract by which he bound himself in 186o to give up all his work for three years had placed him in possession of i,000 francs a month. His fame extended, and at the exhibition of 1867 he received a medal of the first class, and the ribbon of the Legion of Honour. He died on Jan. 20, 1875. He was buried by his friend Rousseau's side in the churchyard of Chailly.