Millet was a central figure in American fine arts, as well as a painter in mid-century Salon style. When returning from Europe he and his friend died after the Titanic struck an iceberg.
Millet
Children on the cabbage patch, those toiling with the potatoes, digging beetroots, and a couple of unusual paintings with cucumbers and the true vegetable gardener.
The experience of colour in our buildings, indoor environments, clothing and objects we look at has changed. What used to be a privilege of class is now all but universal.
Paintings showing the ragged tatters work by peasants and labourers, from social realism and Naturalism between 1850-90.
Examples from Wright of Derby, Turner, Millet, van Gogh, Bonnard and others. But how many used the monochrome of scotopic vision?
When Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’ won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824, it inspired the foundation of the Barbizon School, and led to Impressionism.
This is when the year should really begin. A celebration of the real New Year from Botticelli to Pissarro, aided by Sisley, Van Gogh and others.
From 1880, he painted in Naturalist style, then switched to Impressionism in the early 1890s. He finally embraced post-Impressionism in the 1920s.
A journey along the coast of northern France, starting with Turner at Calais Pier, and ending in vivid colour on Ushant/Ouessant – in wonderful paintings.
From the Adoration of the Shepherds to the Corydon Shepherd of Virgil’s Eclogues, they all had their crooks.
