Lot 95
  • 95

Jean-François Millet

Estimate
500,000 - 700,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Jean-François MIllet
  • Théodore Rousseau's House in Barbizon
  • signed J F Millet (lower right)
  • pastel and crayon noir on paper laid down on board

  • 9 1/2 by 12 in.
  • 24.1 by 30.4 cm

Provenance

Mme. Frédéric Hartmann, Paris and Munster (commissioned from the artist in 1868)

Private Collection (by descent through the family from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2009

Exhibited

Paris, Salle des États au Louvre, Tableaux exposés au profit des Orphelins d'Alsace-Lorraine, 1885, no. 350
Paris,  École des Beaux-Arts, J.F. Millet, 1887, no. 124bis
Paris, Brame et Lorenceau, Barbizon et L'École de la Nature, 1992, no. 31

Literature

Kimberly Jones, " Landscapes, Legends, Souvenirs, Fantasies: The Forest of Fontainebleau in the Nineteenth-Century," In the Forest of Fontainebleau,  Washington D.C., 2008, p. 12, illustrated fig. 10.

Condition

The following condition report was kindly provided by Alvarez Fine Art Services, Inc.: Overall this pastel on paper is in good and stable condition without tears, losses or planar distortions. The paper is mounted upon a 1/4" thick gray paper-pulp board completely. Visually, the pastel appears undisturbed and shows no signs of abrasion or displaced media. There are, however, two discrete areas of exposed paper in the upper-right and lower-right quadrants that shows slight discoloration from oxidation due to contact with the mount. This occurrence is not distracting to the overall composition and is a typical trait of vintage paper. This work does not require conservation treatment, and should be framed behind UV glass with acid-free materials and kept in an environment of low light (5 footcandles or less).
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

Jean-François Millet drew this lushly textured view of the gardens and home of his friend Théodore Rousseau during the spring of 1868, just a few months after Rousseau's untimely death in.  A surprising departure from the sheepherding and field-work subjects that dominate Millet's work in pastel, Théodore Rousseau's House in Barbizon presents an intimacy and a technical sparkle that mark the work as a deeply felt  hommage to a much-missed friend.

Millet probably met Rousseau around 1847 as the younger and less established Millet built a circle of colleagues that included Diaz, Troyon, and Daumier – all of them friends of the brilliant but notoriously difficult Rousseau.  It was only in 1849, however, when Millet moved his family from the turmoil of Paris to rural Barbizon, that the two painters slowly crafted the friendship that would sustain them both through two decades of critical disdain, fickle patrons, and frequent financial hardship.

Together, Millet and Rousseau gave focus to the movement that would be named for their Barbizon home:  Millet as a formally trained figure artist exploring the working lives of peasants, Rousseau as the largely self-taught revolutionary redefining the focus and  techniques of landscape art.  They often walked  together across the surrounding plains as afternoon light left their studios, or spent evenings drawing at the Millet kitchen table. During the 1850s, Rousseau provided crucial (and hidden) financial support when an angry critical onslaught undermined Millet's career.  When Rousseau struggled  with an increasingly unstable common-law wife, Millet and his own wife provided assistance and a refuge. Through Rousseau's last months, it was Millet and Catherine who were his constant nurses.

Particularly striking in the present work are the complex layering of so many distinct marking patterns distinguishing  varieties of foliage in Rousseau's much-loved gardens and the remarkably  controlled fall of light.  It was only recently, during landscape drawing campaigns in Vichy during 1866-68, that Millet had noticeably begun to tread in Rousseau's artistic territory, the dense jumble of wild nature; and Millet's choice to record a familiar view with such a Rouusseau-like emphasis on touch  was surely deliberate.  Far more discrete is the telling combination of darkened doorway and two small puddles of shining light leading off between the house and studio – probably as close as Millet could yet come to commemorating Rousseau's departure from their shared artistic venture.