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Yale University Press Millet.
Yale University Press Millet ABISBOOK Yale University Press.
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May 19, 2026
I first came across Jean-Francoise Millet (pronounced Mee-yay) when I went to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and saw a display of The Gleaners. The picture was of three French peasant women toiling in the fields. I was struck by the realism of the scene and the beauty of it.
Last year, I went to the National Gallery in London to see an exhibition of Millet’s work. (This book was published to accompany that exhibition.) What caught my attention was that peasant life in the French countryside was a running theme in his work. The peasants were not portrayed romantically, but with realism and dignity. By sketching them from life and then transferring them to canvas, he would capture them as they were, caught up in their work and invisible to the artist, and thereby avoiding the artificiality that posing would bring about.
Millet was brought up in a peasant family, so he knew from experience all about life for the rural poor. Life for Millet was hard, but he had a talent for painting and when he was old enough, he went to Paris to study painting. His knowledge of peasant life and the French countryside would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Millet: Life on the Land does an excellent job of describing how Millet’s life affected his art, which is beautifully reproduced. As an introduction to Millet, you cannot do better than this book, short of seeing his paintings in a gallery.
Last year, I went to the National Gallery in London to see an exhibition of Millet’s work. (This book was published to accompany that exhibition.) What caught my attention was that peasant life in the French countryside was a running theme in his work. The peasants were not portrayed romantically, but with realism and dignity. By sketching them from life and then transferring them to canvas, he would capture them as they were, caught up in their work and invisible to the artist, and thereby avoiding the artificiality that posing would bring about.
Millet was brought up in a peasant family, so he knew from experience all about life for the rural poor. Life for Millet was hard, but he had a talent for painting and when he was old enough, he went to Paris to study painting. His knowledge of peasant life and the French countryside would stay with him for the rest of his life.
Millet: Life on the Land does an excellent job of describing how Millet’s life affected his art, which is beautifully reproduced. As an introduction to Millet, you cannot do better than this book, short of seeing his paintings in a gallery.
Displaying 1 of 1 review