Biography:
The realist painter and founder of the Barbizon School in rural France named Jean-François Millet was born on October 4, 1814, in the village of Gruchy, in La Hague, Normandy. Soon after, the man moved to Paris, where he studied with Paul Dumouchel, and then with Jérome Langlois in Cherbourg.
Then, when the 1940s arrived, the artist, already defined, decided to move away from the official painting style and fell under the influence of Honoré Daumier, from whom he learned the sense of contrast between lights and shadows, as well as the construction of the human body, with simplicity of volumes. In a few more years, he came to Barbizon and there, by interacting with his peers, he became part of the school circle that takes the name of this town.
Millet has been distinguished by his characteristic style, which showed a deep sense of nature, like Theodore Rousseau, interpreting nature, understanding the voices of the earth, the trees or the paths, he has been the one who claimed to feel in nature more than the senses gave him.
In this period he has met Rousseau, with whom quickly due to the chemistry they shared they manage to establish a friendship, and it is Rousseau himself, who had more economic resources who helped poor Milllet. The relationship between them is so strong that they have died in Barbizon within a few years of each other and are currently buried a very short distance from each other.
The most famous painting by this artist has been titled “The Gleaners”, it took place in 1848. This work has depicted the poverty of some peasant women leaning in the field to collect the leftovers from the harvested fields, it has been transformed into a powerful and eternal declaration on the working class. Here Millet describes women in a heroic way, in such a way that they are the main thing in painting.
Another very important work has been “The Angelus”, which has been widely reproduced in the 19th century in printers. And such has been its acceptance that the artist Salvador Dalí, fascinated by his work, has written the book “The tragic myth of Millet’s Angelus”, analyzing the painter’s work. This work by Millet has influenced later painters such as Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and Camille Pissarro.
Finally the French artist has passed away in Barbizon, and has been remembered as one of the best French genre painters and landscape painter.