MILLI Jean Francois (Millet Jean Franois)

(1814-1875)
Born October 4, 1814 in the town near Grц?sch Grevilya in Normandy. He studied at several local artists in Cherbourg, and then - from 1837 in Paris with the academic school of the painter Paul Delaroche. In the 1840's choice of subjects was dictated by Millais paintings flavors time: Sacrifice to Pan, Daphnis and Chloe, a fascinating novel, numerous studies of the nude, such as bathers or sleeping woman. In 1848 he abandoned the kind and devoted himself entirely realistic depiction of peasant life. Painting Veyalschik exhibited in the same year - the first work done in a few heavy style that has brought glory Millet. In 1848 he left Paris and settled in Barbizon, on the outskirts of the forest of Fontainebleau, where he lived and worked until his death on Jan. 20, 1875.
Of the paintings, created in Barbizon, the most typical for this period of the master's Sower (1850), Picker ears (1857) and Anzhelyus (1859). Cloth Man with a hoe (1863) shows what has reached the limits of realism Millie: here is depicted a peasant, driven to complete physical exhaustion.

Millet did not seek to invest in their art social protest. He emphasized this in a letter dedicated to the painting Woman Carrying Water (1860): his painting primarily expresses faith in the nobility of ordinary people, in the dignity and worth of their daily physical labor. Style Millet - sober realism, which emerged in the mid-19. mainly in the artist's Barbizon school.