Jean Francois Millet Jean-Francois Miller (18 14- 1875) is the most beloved painter in the history of modern French painting. His simple and kind artistic language is especially loved by French farmers. Born in a peasant family, he showed his talent for painting when he was young and was encouraged by his teacher to learn painting.
Chinese name: Jean Francois Millet.
Jean Francois Millet
Nationality: France
Birthplace: Grush Village, Normandy Peninsula, France
Date of birth: 18 14. 10.4.
Date of death: 1875. 1.20
Occupation: painter
Main achievements: the most popular painter in the history of modern French painting.
Masterpieces: Scavengers, Sowers, Death and Woodman.
Faction: barbizon's factional realism.
Character experience
Jean Francois Millet (1814.10.4-1875.1.20) is the most beloved painter in the history of modern French painting.
Jean Francois Millet was born in a peasant family in Normandy province, and worked as a farmer when he was young. At the age of 23, I went to Paris and studied under the painter Delaroche. The students in the studio looked down on Miller and said he was a "rustic mountain man". The teacher doesn't like Miller either, and often scolds him: "You seem to know everything, but you don't know anything." The young man from the countryside really hates Paris, saying that the city is a big desert, and only the Louvre is the "oasis" of art. When he entered the lobby of the Louvre, he said in surprise, "I seem to have unconsciously come to an art kingdom, and everything here has made my fantasy come true."
Miller was down and out in Paris, and he was overwhelmed by the blow and poverty of his dead wife. In order to survive, he traded sketches for shoes, oil paintings for beds to sleep, and painted signs for midwives for some money. In order to cater to the bourgeois sensory stimulation, Miller also painted vulgar and low-level naked women. Once Miller heard people talking about him and said, "This is the Miller who can't draw anything but dirty nudity." It broke his heart. From then on, he made up his mind not to cater to anyone and resolutely took his own artistic path.
From selling paintings to make a living, I belittled the colorful paintings in Rococo style, which undoubtedly laid a bleak, bitter and solid artistic foundation for Miller's artistic career. Until the painter lived in the village of barbizon in Fontainebleau, he created the French barbizon school with realistic rural landscape paintings, and painted the trees, fields and laborers in the countryside, so that the world was moved by the elegance in the countryside described by the painter and impressed by the painter's ink and wash performance.
1849 Kala-azar was prevalent in Paris, and Miller moved to barbizon village near Fontainebleau, a suburb of Paris. At this time, Miller was 35 years old. In barbizon Village, Miller met painters such as Connor, Rousseau and Trollon. Miller lived in this poor and isolated village for 27 years.
Miller has a deep affection for nature and country life. He gets up early and comes home late. He works in the fields in the morning and paints in a small room with weak light in the afternoon. Miller's life is extremely difficult, but this has not weakened his love and pursuit of art, because he has no money to buy pigments, and he often makes charcoal sketches himself. Miller loves life, labor and farmers. He once said, "In any case, the theme of farmers is the most suitable for me."
Miller's first masterpiece in barbizon was The Sower. Later, he successively created masterpieces such as gleaner and Late Bell.
Main contribution
sower
Sower (1850); 10 1×82.5cm； Boston museum of art collection.
In the desolate wheat field, the sower strode and waved his arms, sowing the seeds of hope. Birds hover in the air, looking for food and plundering the seeds sown-this is a magnificent picture of the relationship between man and nature.
This painting attracted the anxiety of "senior citizens", who saw the image of the street people in Paris similar to the June Revolution in the rhythmic and powerful actions of the sowers. But the progressives at that time reacted differently.
Writer Hugo saw the praise of people's creativity from this painting, so he fully affirmed it. Gautier, a literary critic, said that this image was drawn with the soil of the land where the seeds were sown, which was too real. Painters use simple and concise images like sculptures to summarize and express intriguing contents, so van Gogh, a Dutch painter, commented: "In Miller's works, realistic images are also symbolic."
Miller has never painted a scene of peasant resistance, which may be because his gentle humanitarian spirit contains religious feelings. However, the image of a hard-working and ragged worker he created is actually a kind of resistance to the upper class obsessed with money and feasting, although this resistance is mild. This is the case with the sower.
Shepherd girl
Shepherd girl (1864); Canvas oil painting; Musee d 'Orsay, Paris.
In this painting, the painter captured a very lyrical scene of the shepherd's life (sky, grassland, sheep, praying girl): the high horizon is flat and boundless, and the shepherdess wears an old felt shawl and a red headscarf, and is alone with the sheep. This shepherdess, wearing a dark red embroidered hat and a heavy felt, is knitting a sweater with her back to the sheep and rosy clouds.
In fact, it combines the advantages of "ear-picking" and "late bell": the shepherdess bowed her head and thanked God for giving her a job opportunity, and other paintings also contained farmers' simple hearts and devout religious feelings. The shepherdess stood in the afterglow of the sunset. Although her face and body are darker than the surrounding scenery and sheep because of the backlight, Miller's smooth and quiet colors depict the body of the shepherdess, which has to be slightly bent because of the pressure of life, just like a statue standing on the earth, making it difficult for people not to look at it again. Although she is ragged and tired, in Miller's eyes, she and other farmers are heroes who "work day after day to raise this great nation and create this beautiful country" and have ordinary poetry.
Some people say that the pious shepherdess is Miller, or her spiritual incarnation. Throughout her life, the author's love for the earth and nature runs through. Sad shepherdess, standing in the wilderness under the afterglow of sunset, seems to be praying silently. Miller felt the bitterness and pain of poor workers because of his own experience, so he created this painting with a compassionate and sympathetic attitude.
Miller, a "farmer painter", watched farmers struggle for survival in almost inhuman strict labor from an early age. Therefore, when he looks at nature, he never ignores human beings who are integrated with the earth in nature. Compared with the Dutch genre painting, this painting has no dramatic events, only flocks of sheep and shepherdess bowing their heads in the dusk. At first glance, the casual composition deepened the quiet atmosphere of the picture through the deep twilight. This painting was unexpectedly praised by Miller in the official exhibition. Perhaps it is precisely because of the "truth" captured in the picture that Miller's works let us go far beyond the times.
1864, Miller took this "Shepherdess" to the Salon Art Exhibition in Paris, France, which was highly praised. This painting has been carefully, uniformly and harmoniously treated in terms of color and image of shepherdess. The lyrical melancholy strengthens the touching power, realism and local flavor of the whole painting.
Scavengers
Heading time:1857; Oil painting; Collected by the Musee d 'Orsay in Paris.
This painting describes the most common scene in a rural area: in autumn, the golden fields look endless. On the land after wheat harvest, three peasant women are bending down to pick up the left ear of wheat very carefully to supplement the food at home. The wheat pile behind them seems to have nothing to do with them. Although we can't see the faces and facial expressions of these three peasant women clearly, Miller described their postures as solemn as classical sculptures.
The action angles of the three peasant women are slightly different, and they have the beauty of a series of actions, which seems to be an exploded view of a peasant woman's gleaning action. The peasant woman wearing a red headscarf is picking it up quickly, and the other hand is holding a large bundle of wheat ears in the bag. I can see that she has been taking it for some time, and there is little gain in her bag; The woman wearing a blue headscarf has been exhausted by repeated bending up and down. She looks exhausted, with her left hand behind her waist to support her body. The woman on the right side of the picture, with half of her body sideways and a pile of wheat in her hand, is carefully examining the wheat fields that have been picked again to see if there are any missed ears of wheat.
In the picture, Miller uses a charming warm yellow tone, and the calm and rich colors of the red and blue headscarf are also blended with yellow. The whole picture is quiet and solemn, conveying Miller's deep sympathy for farmers' hard life and Miller's special love for rural life in an idyllic way.
The technique of the whole work is very simple, the clear sky and golden wheat fields are very harmonious, and the rich colors are unified in soft tones, which shows us a charming pastoral scenery. Like Miller's other representative works, it is easy to understand, concise and simple, but it is by no means mediocre and shallow, but profound and thought-provoking, which is also an important feature of Miller's art.
Evening prayer/bell
Evening prayer /L'Angélus time:1859; Cloth painting; The Louvre is in Paris.
It is one of Jean Francois Millet's most famous works. It describes a peasant couple who put down their work and prayed devoutly when the church bell rang in the distance. After Miller's death, the painting changed hands several times and was finally bought by a Frenchman for 800,000 francs and donated to the French government. Evening Prayer is currently collected in the Ossetian Art Museum in Paris.
From 1858 to 1859, Miller's masterpiece The Late Bell was created. One is called "Night Bell" and the other is called "Evening Prayer", which often causes confusion. These two names, a false name and a real name, can't highly summarize the content of painting, but since everyone is established, let's call them all!
This painting profoundly reflects the complicated spiritual life of farmers: on the screen, the sun sets and a hard day's field work is over. As soon as a peasant couple heard the bells of a distant church, they naturally bowed their heads and took off their hats to pray. The painter focuses on the piety of these two images to fate. In the land full of dusk fog, there are two creators of agricultural products. They thanked God for giving them a day's work and prayed for blessing. This favor is two small bags of potatoes in the car next to the peasant woman! Such a favor is actually a reward for their day's work? The images in the picture are so isolated, they reflect the farmers' submissive and happy character. Simple production tools, an iron fork for digging potatoes on the left and a broken basket for loading things in the middle. Besides, they only have rags on their coats and shirts. The setting sun has cast a bleak atmosphere on the earth, and the painter devoted all his efforts here to depict this bleak atmosphere and let it cover the image of this amiable and poor working couple. He focused on describing the piety and simplicity of the peasant couple, and entrusted him with infinite sympathy for the living conditions of the peasants.
Tone, at dusk, the farmer took off his hat, and the young woman crossed her hands to pray. The yellow-brown tone was solemn and warm, and the horizon and characters just formed two crosses, which can be used to comment on winkelmann's famous ancient Greek sculpture sentence "noble simplicity, quiet greatness". Later, we can only feel this feeling in Van Gogh's The Potato Eater and his description of farm shoes. They are all great peasant painters, who feel poetic in their daily work and frugal life.
A person who helps hoe the ground.
The man who helped the hoe:1863; Oil painting; Private collection in San Francisco.
1862, Miller finished The Man Leaning on the Hoe, which strongly showed the weight of life pain. On a barren land, a young farmer is holding a hoe to catch his breath. It is difficult for this man to stand up straight from morning till night, so he can only stop occasionally to catch his breath. The young man who hoed stood in the hot field leaning on his hoe and looked up at the distance. It seems that the heavy life and the weight of labor have exhausted his energy, and there are still large wheat fields waiting to be cultivated in front of him. The distant city is a hazy figure, which is another life that does not belong to him. This is undoubtedly a work that challenges the society. He painted a solemn image of a laborer, and the painter gave a piercing cry here.
Miller's The Hoe Helper is beautiful. Although, in the picture, he is panting with a hoe in the barren land with weeds and piles of rocks, and he is too tired to keep his back straight. But "beauty can't be expressed by his face and color." His head held high, his eyes looking into the distance, revealed his inner bitterness and hardship for fate, and his expectation and yearning for a happy life.
raise
Feeding time:1872; The Louvre is in Paris.
During feeding, the three children sitting on the threshold in turn looked naive, waiting for their mother to take turns feeding them spoonfuls. At the end of the stone house wall, which is also the rightmost part of the picture, you can see the child's father working in the field. He is the master of this family. Anyone who has lived in the countryside for a period of time will feel this situation. Therefore, Miller's oil paintings will have a stronger * * * sound among the broad audience in China.
The size of this painting is not large, only 74 cm high, which is reminiscent of those small oil paintings painted by Miller in barbizon Village. Due to the limited economic conditions, he is unable to buy enough oil painting materials, often taking local materials in the countryside, and sometimes drawing more sketches.
Farmers grafting trees
Time for farmers to graft trees:1855; Cloth oil color; The Louvre in Paris.
The outstanding style of Miller's works is heavy and clumsy. It seems that he does not pay special attention to the description and depiction of details, but pays more attention to the shaping of rough and strong and holistic sense. The characters, colors and oil painting techniques of farmers, wives and babies in the picture are natural, simple and kind, conveying a kind of family atmosphere.
This is a realistic amorous feelings painting.
Goose girl taking a bath
Time: 1863 Specification: 38cm×46.5cm Material: oil painting Baltimore Walters Art Collection.
In this work, Miller shows a pure local flavor. The picture shows the girl who puts geese in the jungle by the river, and is about to take a bath. The naked body of the girl is shown by the painter as plump and strong, youthful and strong, and the dense jungle sets off the beautiful curve of the girl's body. The geese in the distance add vitality to the picture. With realistic skills and keen observation, the painter described the light and shadow of the jungle, highlighted the use of light and shadow by naked young women, and made the picture appear unified and harmonious.
sacrifice
Sacrifice at Faber Museum in Montpellier 1845 52cm×29.2cm oil painting on canvas.
The painter described the plot of a pure girl offering sacrifices to an idol in mysterious tones. The picture is full of drama, and Miller shows the girl's gesture of sacrifice with his usual heavy modeling. The picture is full of lyrical romance and mystery.
Figure painting genre
Kala-azar was prevalent in Paris in 1849. At the age of 35, he and his family moved to barbizon village near Fontainebleau, a suburb of Paris. In barbizon Village, he met painters such as Koro, Rousseau and Trollon. He lived in this poor and isolated village for 27 years. Miller has a deep affection for nature and country life. He gets up early and comes home late. He works in the fields in the morning and paints in a small room with weak light in the afternoon. His life is extremely difficult, but this has not affected his passion and pursuit of art, because he has no money to buy pigments, and he often makes charcoal sketches himself. He loves life, labor and farmers. He once said, "In any case, the theme of farmers is the most suitable for me." Thus formed the "barbizon School" with Rousseau, Diaz, Jules dupre, Koro and Miller as the main members, which is famous in the history of European art.
The next 27 years will be the most productive period of Miller's life. Many French people are familiar with the following paintings: The Sower (1850), The Shepherd Girl (1852), gleaner (1857), The Night Bell (1859) and Help Cut. He never makes up scenes, and every painting comes from the real life of French farmers' farming, grazing, labor and life.
Jean-Francois Miller is the most popular painter in the history of modern French painting. His simple and kind artistic language is especially loved by French farmers. Born in a peasant family, he showed his talent for painting when he was young and was encouraged by his teacher to learn painting.
Due to the hardship of life, Miller had to draw some colorful paintings imitating the style of Pushan and Fragona Rococo, and put them in the painting shop for sale. But as the son of a farmer, he always wanted to paint the simple and industrious image of French farmers with his own brush. From 1938 to 1948, he painted a picture of the woman who powdered millet and sold it for 500 francs. He consulted with his friend, the animal painter Charles Jacques, and used the money to settle in barbizon. At that time, painters Rousseau and Diaz had settled there, and Miller longed for their lives. So, Miller took an important step in his life.
"1849 On a sunny morning in July, he took his wife and five children, boarded a heavy Japanese car with Charles Jacques and headed for Fontainebleau, 90 kilometers from Paris. Then, carrying a simple bag, he walked to barbizon Village. The farmer's son finally returned to the countryside and looked at the trees and fields there. He shouted happily, "Oh, my God, it's beautiful here!" " "He breathed the fragrance of the land, heard the noise of the forest, and everything he longed for in his childhood reappeared in front of him. "
In addition, there is a saying to evaluate the relationship between "barbizon School" and Miller:
"The rise of French realistic painting was initiated by barbizon school. In this school of painting, the realistic farmer painter Miller should be the first to realistically show the relationship and contradiction between farmers and nature. Miller's style, according to the strict distinction of painting history, should not be classified as barbizon school. But Miller lived in barbizon Village for 27 years, longer than anyone else. There, he works in the fields in the morning and paints in the afternoon. He hasn't changed for many years, so he knows barbizon better than anyone. "
Romain rolland pointed out in Miller's Biography: "Miller, a master of classicism who devoted all his spirit to eternal meaning instead of instant, has never been given such a magnificent and great feeling and performance by a painter to the land where everything belongs."
Personality assessment
Jean Francois Millet is the most outstanding realistic painter in France in the19th century. He is famous for his portrayal of peasants, and he is a painter in barbizon, France. It is famous in French painting circles for its touching humanity in rural genre painting. Miller is the greatest pastoral painter in France. Everyone used to call him Miller, but in fact it should be translated into "Ye Mi" in French. Miller's works mainly describe the labor and life of farmers. He observes nature with fresh eyes and has a strong flavor of rural life.
Romain rolland pointed out in Miller's Biography: "Miller, a master of classicism who devoted all his spirit to eternal meaning instead of instant, has never been given such a magnificent and great feeling and performance by a painter to the land where everything belongs." .