Physical description
Woodland scene on the top of a cliff near the sea; in the foreground is a stone terminal figure hung with wreaths; on the left, in the distance is the seashore, with men launching a boat.
Place of Origin
France (painted)
Date
Before 1865 (painted)
Artist/maker
Jean-François Millet, born 1814 - died 1875 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Height: 46 cm estimate, Width: 38 cm estimate
Object history note
Probably Millet studio sale, 10-11 May 1875, lot 29, sold for 1,210 francs; Collection Henry Hill, Brighton; sold Christie's London, 25 May 1889, bought Dowdeswell, 12 gns.; Buck & Reid; Constantine Alexander Ionides; bequeathed to the Museum in 1900.
Historical significance: This painting is a preparatory study for an allegory of Spring in The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (P.1959-0146), dated 1865. This date provides a limit post quem this sketch could not have been made.
The present study shows a landscape with a seashore in the background, probably inspired by the cliff of Gréville near his hometown in Normandy, with in the foreground a statue of Pan adorned with wreaths of flowers and foliage. Compare with the finished version, the main characters Daphnis and Chloe, are missing. Daphnis and Chloe were two young lovers, whose story, a pastoral romance with a happy end, was narrated by the late Greek author Longus (2nd cent. A.D.?).
This is a very rare example of Millet's mythological paintings. Millet is actually best known for his rural scenes which depict 19th-century peasants' daily activities in beautiful landscapes infused with the brilliant light of Normandy's sky. Millet was one of the most authoritative exponents of the Barbizon school, an artistic movement that anticipated the Impressionism and derived somehow from the new interest for realism.
Historical context note
19th-century French art is marked by a succession of movements based on a more or less close relationship with nature. At the beginning of the century, Romantic artists were fascinated by nature they interpreted as a mirror of the mind. They investigated human nature and personality, the folk culture, the national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the remote, the mysterious and the occult. This movement was heralded in France by such painter as Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). In its opposition to academic art and its demand for a modern style Realism continued the aims of the Romantics. They assumed that reality could be perceived without distortion or idealization, and sought after a mean to combine the perception of the individual with objectivity. This reaction in French painting against the Grand Manner is well represented by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who wrote a 'Manifesto of Realism', entitled Le Réalisme published in Paris in 1855. These ideas were challenged by the group of the Barbizon painters, who formed a recognizable school from the early 1830s to the 1870s and developed a free, broad and rough technique. They were mainly concerned by landscape painting and the rendering of light. The works of Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (1807-1876), Jules Dupré (1811-1889), Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Constant Troyon (1810-1865) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) anticipate somehow the plein-air landscapes of the Impressionists.
Descriptive line
Oil painting, 'Study for the four seasons: Spring (Daphnis and Chloe)', Jean-François Millet, before 1865
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 , London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 73-76, cat. no. 165.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Jean-François MILLET (1814-75)
French School
Born in Normandy of peasant stock Millet's first professional training was acquired in Cherbourg under the painters Mouchal and Langlois in 1833-36. He went to Paris in 1837, where he was a pupil of Paul Delaroche, and for the next ten years painted mainly portraits and scenes galantes in the manner of Diaz. At about the time of the Revolution of 1848, he turned increasingly to painting rural scenes; in 1849 he moved to Barbizon, where he became a close friend of Theodore Rousseau, and where he remained for the rest of his life. Although attacked for his concentration on peasant subjects, he won increasing public recognition in the 1860s, and was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1868.
Lit. E. Moreau-Nélaton, Millet raconté par lui-meme, Paris, 1921; R. L. Herbert, Barbizon revisited, New York, 1963; ibid., Millet (in preparation).
165
LANDSCAPE WITH A TERMINAL FIGURE
Canvas
18 x 15 (46 x 38)
Ionides Bequest
CAI.172
R. L. Herbert has identified this painting with no. 29 in the Millet sale, Étude pour le Tableau du Printemps. The 'Spring' referred to is one of the four seasons commissioned in 1864 for M. Thomas, Due de Bojano, for his city house in Paris. Installed in September 1865 the series was later dispersed; 'Spring' is now in the Matsukata Collection, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (oil on canvas, 231.5 X 131.5 cm.). The finished version contains the figures of Daphnis and Chloe, which do not appear in the V. & A. landscape. It represents the coast near Cherbourg, the subject of many of Millet's paintings, but, as he paid no visits to his old house between 1854 and 1870, it could not have been taken direct from nature. It is doubtful whether the terminal figure could actually have been found there; it was probably added because of the Daphnis and Chloe theme. This sketch may reasonably be dated 1864 or slightly earlier.
Prov. Seal Vente J. F. Millet at back; Millet sale, Paris, 10 May 1875, lot 29 sold for 1,210 francs; Collection Henry Hill, Brighton; sold Christie's, 25 May 1889, bought Dowdeswell, 12 gns.; Buck & Reid; Constantine Alexander Ionides; bequeathed to the Museum in 1900.
Lit. Soullié, Ventes ... Millet, 1900, p. 32; Long, Cat. Ionides Coll., 1925, p. 43; R. Pickvance, 'Henry Hill: an untypical Victorian collector' in Apollo, 1962, p. 79I; V. & A. Museum, The Barbizon School, 1965, p. 19, pl. 15.
Soullié, Ventes ... Millet, 1900, p. 32.
B.S. Long, Catalogue of the Constantine Alexander Ionides collection. Vol. 1, Paintings in oil, tempera and water-colour, together with certain of the drawings, London, 1925, p. 43.
R. Pickvance, 'Henry Hill: an untypical Victorian collector' in Apollo, 1962, p. 791.
C.M. Kauffmann, The Barbizon School, London, 1965, p. 19, pl. 15.
Materials
Oil paint; Canvas
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscape; Terminal figure
Categories
Paintings
Collection code
PDP
