Grew, R. “Picturing the People: Images of the Lower Orders in Nineteenth-Century French Art,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 17 (Summer 1986): 203-31
Jean-François Millet
Born: Gruchy, Normandy, 4 October 1814
Died: Barbizon, 20 January 1875
Nationality: French
Died: Barbizon, 20 January 1875
Nationality: French
Background:
rural upbringing; Millet drawing of His Childhood Home (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Studies:
with portrait painter Bon Du Mouchel; with Lucien-Theophile Langlois (Cherbourg); with Paul Delaroche (Paris)
Career:
1839 – competes unsuccessfully for Prix de Rome
1840 –Paris Salon debut; returns to Cherbourg for one year
1848 – meets Barbizon artists, especially friendly with Théodore Rousseau
1849 – moves to Barbizon
1850 – exhibits The Sower at Paris Salon
1867 – retrospective exhibition at Exposition universelle (Paris)
1868 – awarded Légion d’honneur
1870 – final Salon exhibition
1889 –The Angleus purchased for record breaking 580,650 francs and tours the US
Commissions from:
Thomas Gold Appleton; Frédéric Hartmann
Important Artworks:
Self-Portrait, c. 1840 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz), 1850-53 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Starry Night, 1851 (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven)
The Gleaners, 1857 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris)
The Angleus, 1857-59 (Musée d’Orsay)
Buy the Book 
