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拍品專文
Restés dans la même famille depuis le début du XXe siècle, ces pastels de jeunesse sont uniquement connus grâce à la publication de 1902 de Walter Gensel et un échange épistolaire entre le propriétaire et Robert Herbert, le 9 janvier 1976. Ils apparaissent aujourd'hui comme une redécouverte importante qui nous éclaire sur la formation de l'artiste. Les pastels ont été datés par Herbert des années 1843-1845 alors que Millet est âgé d'une trentaine d'années. Il vient de quitter sa terre natale et l'atelier de Paul Delaroche, arrive à Paris avec son épouse et peint de nombreux portraits, nus et scènes pastorales pour subvenir aux besoin du couple. A cette époque, il parcourt le Louvre et dit à son ami et biographe Alfred Sensier : 'Les maîtres furent pendant un mois mon unique occupation du jour. Je les dévorais tous, je les observais, les analysais et j'y revenais sans cesse' (Millet, cat. exp., Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2018, p. 36). Sensier qualifiera cette période d'apprentissage de 'période fleurie' où l'artiste, à l'image des présents pastels, oscille entre légèreté et sensualité, entre l'histoire, la mythologie et parfois le grivois. Les deux pastels laissent à penser que Millet a dû regarder les scènes galantes des Watteau, Lancret et autre Pater. Citons de cette période de jeunesse deux œuvres en comparaison : Le retour des champs conservée au Cleveland Museum of Art , où un paysan embrasse une jeune femme allongée dans une brouette (inv. no. 1972.19 ; Jean-François Millet, cat. exp., Paris, Grand Palais, 1976, no. 19, ill.), et une Femme à la fenêtre, les épaules dénudées, aujourd'hui à l'Art Institute of Chicago (inv. no. 1844/45 ; ibid., 1976, no. 20, ill.).
Kept in the same family since the early 20th century, these pastels from Millet’s youth are only known from Walter Gensel’s publication of 1902 and correspondence between the owner and Robert Herbert from 9 January 1976. They can here be rediscovered as important records of the artist’s formation. They have been dated by Herbert to 1843-1845 when the artist was about thirty years old. He had just left his native region and Paul Delaroche’s studio, and arrived in Paris with his wife, and painted numerous portraits, nudes and pastoral scenes to sustain their life in the capital. At this time, he often visited the Louvre, telling his friend and biographer Alfred Sensier: ‘The old masters were for a month my only occupation during the day. I devoured all of them, I looked at them, analyzed them and came constantly back to them. (Millet, exhib. cat., Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2018, p. 36). Sensier called this period of study Millet’s ‘period in bloom’, with the artist working on lighter, sensual subjects, sometimes taken from history or mythology, and sometimes approaching a certain naughtiness, as the present pair of pastels illustrate. They suggest Millet studied the works of such artists as Watteau, Lancret and Pater. From this period two comparable works can be cited: The return from the fields at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in which a peasant kisses a young woman lying in a wheelbarrow (inv. 1972.19; Jean-François Millet, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1976, no. 19, ill.), and a Woman at a window, with nude shoulders, now at the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 1844/45; ibid., 1976, no. 20, ill.).
Kept in the same family since the early 20th century, these pastels from Millet’s youth are only known from Walter Gensel’s publication of 1902 and correspondence between the owner and Robert Herbert from 9 January 1976. They can here be rediscovered as important records of the artist’s formation. They have been dated by Herbert to 1843-1845 when the artist was about thirty years old. He had just left his native region and Paul Delaroche’s studio, and arrived in Paris with his wife, and painted numerous portraits, nudes and pastoral scenes to sustain their life in the capital. At this time, he often visited the Louvre, telling his friend and biographer Alfred Sensier: ‘The old masters were for a month my only occupation during the day. I devoured all of them, I looked at them, analyzed them and came constantly back to them. (Millet, exhib. cat., Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2018, p. 36). Sensier called this period of study Millet’s ‘period in bloom’, with the artist working on lighter, sensual subjects, sometimes taken from history or mythology, and sometimes approaching a certain naughtiness, as the present pair of pastels illustrate. They suggest Millet studied the works of such artists as Watteau, Lancret and Pater. From this period two comparable works can be cited: The return from the fields at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in which a peasant kisses a young woman lying in a wheelbarrow (inv. 1972.19; Jean-François Millet, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1976, no. 19, ill.), and a Woman at a window, with nude shoulders, now at the Art Institute of Chicago (inv. 1844/45; ibid., 1976, no. 20, ill.).