JEAN-FRANQOIS MILLET
79 Man with a Hoe
Black chalk and white chalk heightening on buff paper;
H: 28 cm (uViein.); W: 34.9 cm (i3^3 ^in.)
85.06.115
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom right corner,
signed J. F. Millet in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: Feral collection, Paris (sale, Paris, March
12 , 1874); Verdier collection, Paris; Mrs. Wertheimer,
Paris; Christian Humann, Switzerland; art market, Mu-
nich; Crocker family, San Francisco.
EXHIBITIONS: J. F. Millet, dessinateur, Galerie Hector
Brame, Paris, January-February 1938, no. 55. Jean-
Fran^ois Millet et ses amis—Peintures de Barbizon, Kyoto
City Art Museum and other institutions, August-De-
cember 1970, no. 35. A Collection of Nineteenth Century
French Drawings, P. and D. Colnaghi, London, May-
June 1982, no. 18.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Sensier and P. Mantz, La vie et
I'oeuvre dej. F. Millet (Paris, 1881), p. 237; L. Soullie, Les
grands peintres aux ventes publiques II: Peintures, aquarelles,
pastels, dessins de Jean-Francois Millet (Paris, 1900), p. 133;
R. Herbert, Jean-Francois Millet, exh. cat., Grand Palais,
Paris, 1975, p. 201; idem, Jean-Francois Millet, exh. cat.,
Hayward Gallery, London, 1976, p. 140.
MILLET'S PAINTING MAN WITH A HOE (MALIBU,
J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 85.PA. 114) of 1860-1862 is
among the most important and controversial pictures
created in mid-nineteenth-century France. Since that
time it has been associated with the imagery of social rad-
icalism, despite the artist's evident desire to represent a
less political and more philosophically timeless relation-
ship of the weary peasant to his land (Herbert 1975, p.
201). This drawing appears to be a preparatory study for
the painting, as has been indicated by Herbert (1975, p.
201). Arguing for this is the relatively free drawing of
certain passages, especially along the ground, and the
much more elaborate depiction of flora in the painting.
Equally, certain individual strokes—such as those estab-
lishing the hill in the left background or the mounds and
rocks in the immediate foreground—give the impres-
sion of an artist developing an idea rather than reiterating
it. Other.preparatory studies are listed by Herbert (1975,
p. 201).178 FRENCH SCHOOL • MILLET