Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875) was a French realist painter. He was born in Gruchy, near Graville, France. Millet was one of the founder members of Barbizon School. He had painted about 129 artworks during his lifetime. Millet is most noted for his paintings on subjects around peasant life. Realism was his style of painting, which, in the arts, meant the accurate, detailed and unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life.

Childhood

He spent his childhood working in the fields. When he became 17years of age, he started studying art in Cherbourg, France and in 1837. Thereafter he went to Paris and enrolled in the studio of Paul Delaroche. He remained in the studio until 1839. When one of his entries was rejected by the Salon of 1840, he returned to Cherbourg and started painting portraits. His first success came in 1844 in the form of ‘ The Milkmaid‘ and ‘The Riding Lesson‘.

Peasant Subjects

In the 1850s, subjects surrounding peasant life and their economic status came to be the main concern and thrust of his paintings. Some of his paintings on village life made a notable appearance in the Salon of 1848, mainly, ‘ The Winnower‘, which was later destroyed by fire. After a period of severe hardship, Millet left Paris and went to settle in Barbizon, a small village in the forest of Fontainebleau.

A Socialist

Most of Millet’s paintings centered around village life, hardships faced by the rural folk and their life pattern. His real intention was also to capture both the poverty of agricultural labourers and dignity of labour. As a result, he had to face the charge of being a socialist. Recognition to Millet started to gather momentum in 1860. He received official recognition in 1868 when 9 of his major paintings featured in the exposition of 1867.

Millet’s Well-known Artworks

‘The Sower’ (1850), ‘The Gleaners’ (1857), ‘The Angelus’ (1859), ‘The Man With The Hoe’ (1862), ‘Harvesters Resting’ (1853), ‘The Potato Harvest’ (1855), ‘Women Carrying Faggots’ (1858), ‘The Sheepfold Moonlight’ (1860), ‘The Cliff of Graville’ (1872), ‘Bird’s Nesters’ (1874) are a few of Millet’s great artworks. In all these paintings, the realist Millet focussed on real issues such as social conditions, rural poverty and the lives of the common people.

Mile-stone Display of Paintings

In 1867, the Exposition Universelle hosted a major display of Millet’s works with ‘ The Gleaners’, ‘Angenus’ and ‘Potato Planters’ among the major paintings exhibited. In the following year, Millet was named Chaveller De Lan Legio d’Honneur’

‘The Gleaners’

‘The Gleaners’ is an oil painting by Jan Francois Miller. The painting depicts three peasant women gleaning a field of stray stalks of wheat after the harvest. Millet completed the painting in 1857. The painting is a part of the movement started by the members of the Barbizon School of Art to return to nature with art. The members of this school caught in their paintings the effects of changing seasons and transient light on the landscape.