Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 13119-h.htm or 13119-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/1/13119/13119-h/13119-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/1/13119/13119-h.zip) JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET A Collection of Fifteen Pictures and a Portrait of the Painter, with Introduction and Interpretation by ESTELLE M. HURLL The Riverside Art Series 1900 [Illustration: JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET] PREFACE In making a selection of Millet's pictures, devoted as they are to the single theme of French peasant life, variety of subject can be obtained only by showing as many phases of that life as possible. Our illustrations therefore represent both men and women working separately in the tasks peculiar to each, and working together in the labors shared between them. There are in addition a few pictures of child life. The selections include a study of the field, the dooryard, and the home interior, and range from the happiest to the most sombre subjects. They show also considerable variety in artistic motive and composition, and taken together fairly represent the scope of Millet's work. ESTELLE M. HURLL. NEW BEDFORD, MASS. March, 1900. CONTENTS AND LIST OF PICTURES PORTRAIT OF MILLET. DRAWN BY HIMSELF INTRODUCTION I. ON MILLET'S CHARACTER AS AN ARTIST II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION IV. OUTLINE TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN MILLET'S LIFE V. SOME OF MILLET'S ASSOCIATES I. GOING TO WORK II. THE KNITTING LESSON III. THE POTATO PLANTERS IV. THE WOMAN SEWING BY LAMPLIGHT V. THE SHEPHERDESS VI. THE WOMAN FEEDING HENS VII. THE ANGELUS VIII. FILLING THE WATER-BOTTLES IX. FEEDING HER BIRDS X. THE CHURCH AT GRÉVILLE XI. THE SOWER XII. THE GLEANERS XIII. THE MILKMAID XIV. THE WOMAN CHURNING XV. THE MAN WITH THE HOE XVI. THE PORTRAIT OF MILLET PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS NOTE: All the pictures were made from carbon prints by Braun, Clément & Co. INTRODUCTION I. ON MILLET'S CHARACTER AS AN ARTIST The distinctive features of Millet's art are so marked that the most inexperienced observer easily identifies his work. As a painter of rustic subjects, he is unlike any other artists who have entered the same field, even those who have taken his own themes. We get at the heart of the matter when we say that Millet derived his art directly from nature. "If I could only do what I like," he said, "I would paint nothing that was not the result of an impression directly received from nature, whether in landscape or in figure." His pictures are convincing evidence that he acted upon this theory. They have a peculiar quality of genuineness beside which all other rustic art seems forced and artificial.