Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) was born into a farming family at Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague on the Normandy coast, and worked the land himself as a young man. He trained in Cherbourg, first with Bon Du Mouchel and then with Théophile Langlois de Chèvreville, and in 1837 moved to Paris to study under Paul Delaroche at the École des Beaux-Arts. After years of portraits in Cherbourg, Le Havre and Paris he settled in Barbizon in 1849 and became one of the founders of the Barbizon school. His subject was the peasant farmer, and The Sower, The Gleaners and The Angelus became the core of his reputation, though The Gleaners met a hostile public at the Salon of 1857. The gap between the price The Angelus later fetched and the poverty of his surviving family helped bring about the droit de suite, the artist's resale right. Van Gogh drew heavily on him, especially in his early years. Here: The Angelus and The Gleaners.