8o Shepherdess and Her Flock
Black chalk and pastel; H: 36.4 cm (i4I5/i6 in.); W: 47.4
cm(i8II/i6in.)
83.GF.220 (SEE PLATE 8)
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At bottom right, signed
J. F. Millet in black chalk.
PROVENANCE: E. Secretan, Paris (sale, Galerie Charles
Sedelmeyer, Paris, July i, 1889, lot 101); private collec-
tion, Newport, Rhode Island; art market, New York.
EXHIBITIONS: Millet Retrospective, Ecole des Beaux-
Arts, Paris, 1887, no. 117.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Herbert, Jean-Francois Millet, exh.
cat., Grand Palais, Paris, 1975, p. 204; idem, Jean-Francois
Millet, exh. cat., Hay ward Gallery, London, 1976, p. 143;
A. R. Murphy, Jean-Francois Millet, exh. cat., Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984, p. 157, under no. 108.IN 1864 MILLET EXHIBITED HIS PAINTING SHEPHERD-
ESS and Her Flock (Paris, Louvre) at the Salon, where it
achieved great success as one of his classic depictions of
peasant life. This is one of at least four pastels that relate
to the painting. Two others are in the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston (inv. 35.1162), and the Walters Art Gallery,
Baltimore (inv. 37.906); another sold at Sotheby's, New
York, on November 21, 1980, as lot 106. Herbert (1975,
p. 204) has suggested that the Getty Museum's version
was the earliest of the three then known to him (exclud-
ing the one at Sotheby's) and has hypothesized that it may
have preceded the painting. In any event it is perhaps the
most monumental of the pastel images of the theme, fo-
cusing around the sculptural form of the shepherdess.
Among its notable features is the small dog in the right
middle ground, which seems to anticipate the drawing
style of Seurat a generation later. If this drawing was
done in advance of the painting, it would be datable to
1862/63. Further studies related to it are listed by Herbert
(1975, p. 204).ISO FRENCH SCHOOL • MILLET