Barbizon, rural work and twilight poetry · 1814 -1875

Immobile shepherdesses, moving herds, shearing and night parks give Millet a monumental gravity to the ordinary gestures of rural life.

Jean-François Millet was born in 1814 in Gruchy, into a peasant family in Cotentin, and died in Barbizon in 1875. His knowledge of rural work comes from direct experience even before his artistic training in Cherbourg then in Paris. After beginnings marked by portrait and figure, he settled in Barbizon in 1849. The plain of Chailly, the forest of Fontainebleau and the surrounding villages became the setting for his great peasant scenes. The shepherdesses and herds occupy an essential place in this universe. Millet does not paint an elegant pastoral ministry detached from work. He observes waiting, slow walking, shearing, recall and surveillance of animals. There silhouette of the shepherdess, often alone, stands out against the plain like a monumental form. The stick, the scarf and the mass of sheep are enough to identify a function, a season and an hour. In The Sheep Park, moonlight, the night light transforms the fence and the flock into silent masses. On the contrary, the shearing scenes narrow the gaze on the effort of the arms, the wool and the interior of the barn. Millet prepares his paintings with numerous drawings, pastels and studies. His mowing scenes, on the contrary, narrow the gaze on the effort of the arms, the wool and the interior of the barn. Millet prepares his paintings with numerous drawings, pastels and studies. His earthy color, simplified contours and solid construction give the figures a dignity that will go beyond social realism. Van Gogh, among others, will copy and reinterpret several of his compositions. A faithful reproduction must preserve the halftones, the density of the earth and the clarity of the silhouette without hardening the material. The selection "Shepherdesses and herds by Jean-François Millet" notably compares The Sheep Park, Moonlight - Jean-François Millet and Shepherdess Sitting in the Shade - Jean-François Millet. His reading favors details.

Millet does not transform the shepherdess into a theater heroine: he makes heroic the duration, the vigilance and the repeated gesture which unite the human being to the flock.