Galerie Dreyfus
62
-
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET GRUCHY, GRÉVILLE-HAGUE, 1814 – BARBIZON…
See original version (French)
62
-
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET GRUCHY, GRÉVILLE-HAGUE, 1814 – BARBIZON…
See original version (French)
Estimate €100,000 - €140,000
Voluntary lot
Description
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET
GRUCHY, GRÉVILLE-HAGUE, 1814 – BARBIZON, 1875
Farmhouse in a Landscape
c. 1870
Oil on canvas
58 x 73.7 cm.
(78.5 x 94.5 cm. with frame)
Signed lower left ‘J. F. Millet’
Provenance
Secretan Collection, Paris;
Edonars Collection, Paris;
Foinard Collection, Paris;
Goupil & Verledon, Paris, 1892;
Purchased by Mr C.M.S. White in 1893, then passed down to his daughter;
Kievits Galleries, Pasadena, California, 1931 (purchased from the previous owner)
Colonel Steven L’Hommedieu Slocum, Washington, D.C., 1932 (purchased from the previous owner)
Knoedler, New York (their mark on the stretcher);
Margaret O. F Proctor;
Christie’s auction, New York, 12 October 1979, lot 50;
Purchased at this auction by the present owner’s father, then passed down through the family.
Bathed in soft spring light, these two farm buildings stand peacefully
in the hollow of a small valley. All around, the verdant countryside basks in the mildness of the
climate. In this Normandy countryside, one can follow the hedgerows as they wind their way, separating the plots
and fields, climbing up the hillsides. Trees are rather scarce, most of them fruit trees.
This countryside is mainly devoted to pasture. In the foreground, a stream winds its way
through the landscape, where a red cow drinks, more adventurous than her companions who have stayed back,
near the barn. As you scan this landscape teeming with tiny details, you can also make out
a few hens in the shadow of the central building, as well as a flock of geese, further to
the right, in a meadow. The grass is a soft green, covering the ground like a carpet as far
as the eye can see. The crystal-clear blue sky is streaked with white, timid clouds, hardly threatening.
The atmosphere is bucolic and serene, the tone warm and luminous. The countryside that Millet
paints here is idyllic. The colour is applied in separate touches on light
underpaintings. The outlines are so blurred that the eye struggles to make them out. With his increasingly
loose brushwork, Millet is taking small steps towards Impressionism.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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