 |
| Autumn Landscape with a Flock of Turkeys |
Artist:Jean-François Millet (French, Gruchy 1814–1875 Barbizon)
Date:1872–73
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:31 7/8 x 39 in. (81 x 99.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917
Accession Number:17.120.209
Millet wrote to his patron Frédéric Hartmann on February 18, 1873 that he had nearly completed this picture for the dealer Durand-Ruel: "It is a hillock, with a single tree almost bare of leaves, and which I have tried to place rather far back in the picture. The figures are a woman seen from behind and a few turkeys. I have also tried to indicate the village in the background on a lower plane." The setting is near Barbizon, where Millet lived from 1849 until his death. The tower of the neighboring hamlet of Chailly-en-Bière is visible in the distance.
Catalogue Entry
Millet wrote to his patron Frédéric Hartmann on February 18, 1873 that he had nearly completed this picture for the dealer Durand-Ruel and hoped to deliver it the following week: "It is a hillock, with a single tree almost bare of leaves, and which I have tried to place rather far back in the picture. The figures are a woman seen from behind and a few turkeys. I have also tried to indicate the village in the background on a lower plane." The setting is near Barbizon, where Millet lived from 1849 until his death. In the center of the picture, what appears to be a chimney attached to the roof of a cottage has been identified as the ruined tower of the neighboring hamlet of Chailly-en-Bière, which was used as an open-air furnace (Herbert 1976, p. 214).
The effect Millet described, of placing the hill "rather far back in the picture" is similar, if less exaggerated, than in a striking composition of the same size, In the Auvergne (ca. 1867–69; Art Institute of Chicago). In these late works Millet revealed himself to be a highly original, even idiosyncratic landscape painter. A probable catalyst in this development was the death in 1867 of Théodore Rousseau, which prompted Hartmann to ask Millet to complete some landscapes by the late artist that had been paid for, but which had been left unfinished (Herbert 1976, p. 29). In any case, setting, including both time and place, had long been an instrinsic feature of Millet’s peasant subjects. Here, against the darkening sky, the inevitability of winter is stayed fleetingly by the contrasting sunlight that picks out three birds to the right of the tree and the grass among the rocks at the lower right, which is longer where it would have been more difficult to cut.
Six sketches for this picture were owned by the Leicester Galleries, London, in 1961 (see Herbert 1962, where they are dated about 1868–70). A chalk drawing after the picture by Alfred Robaut is in the MMA (61.176). The composition was etched by Vallotton.
Asher Ethan Miller 2015
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
Comments
Post a Comment