Millet

On 3X5 cards:

1) GRUNCY (Gee-von-she) NOMANDY 1814
-Oct. 4, 1814
-Second child, oldest boy
-peasant family -worked own land
-father gifted organist. brothers were doctor, miller, world tourist
-mothers family "prosperous"
-family encouraged art work
-attended local school
-traind to be doctor or profession in church
-loved to read. Favorite was the Bible & Virgil's georgils (poetry of the land)
-early artwork taken to local artists.
-Millet studied art a cherbourg museum, occasionally returning to family farm.
-Father died 1835 (21 yrs old), returned to take care of the farm.

2)PARIS
-1837 left farm to study art in Paris with Scholarship
-didn't like Paris. Critics said his paintings were that of a "socialist", only a political rebel would paint peasants working in the fields.
- Revolution in Paris
- Had painting in salon
-Married, after 3 yrs wife died,
-became member of French Academy
-Paintingis in Paris had been on history & religion
-12 yrs lived in Paris

3)BARBISON
- Millet left a cholera stricken Paris in 1849 (35yrs old) to live in Barbizon (Holland)
- Painted what he loved -the forest
-brother came to study art w/ Millet
-1853 mother died, Millet returned to Normandy
-spent 4 months making sketches of home & countryside
-took sketches back home to Barbizon and made paintings mostly from memory

4) THE GLEANERS
- 1857
- strongly attacked by conservatives
- accepted in the slon
-style "Realism"
- man is almost always in center of his art unlike typical landscape artists
- background not as detailed (wagon, horses, houses, haystacks) shows persteptive
-(Note: 1850's was when Whistler began famous in America for painting his mother)

5) ART
-Millet was able to sell some of his paintings
-48 yrs. old had a "productive" year. art shown by dealers
- 49 had 9th, and last, child
- continued studying art thoughout his life
- 52 took great interest in landscapes.
-54 left France to go to Switzerland to study other paintings
-Started collecting art from other painters
His two best mediums were oil & pastels. Most of his artwork was of peasants working. "Realitic" style, drama of human labor. Used "somber" colors.

6)1875
-died in Jan (60 yrs old)
- was ill two years prior to death
- paintings began selling for large sums of money but Millet too sick to benefit from it.
-Millets art work left an impression on future artists...Van Gogh, Pissarro.
-23 paintings in the Louvre
-2 paintings in London museum
- 68 paintings & pastels in Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
-Several paintings in National Gallery of Art inWashington, D.C.