From the artist's life
Van Gogh idolised Millet and painted his own versions of Millet's peasant scenes again and again.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaRealism
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet (1814–1875) was a leader of the Barbizon school who gave dignity to peasant labour. His solemn The Gleaners and The Angelus made the rural poor a worthy subject of serious art.
Millet's reverence for peasant life deeply moved Van Gogh and shaped Realist and Symbolist art.
- A founder of the Barbizon school of rural landscape and labour.
- The Gleaners and The Angelus ennobled the poor and the working land.
- A direct inspiration to Van Gogh and later Realists.
Key works
Where to start
Complete list of key works
Works with a dedicated ArtAtlas page are highlighted in gold.
- The AngelusOn ArtAtlas
- The GleanersOn ArtAtlas
- Death and the WoodcutterListed for reference
- The Potato HarvestListed for reference
- Shepherdess with her FlockListed for reference
- The SowerListed for reference
- The WinnowerListed for reference
- Peasant Women with BrushwoodListed for reference
- Le PrintempsListed for reference
- Shepherdess Seated on a RockListed for reference
- Haystacks: AutumnListed for reference
- Man with a HoeListed for reference
1858
The Angelus
1857
The Gleaners
The Gleaners is an oil painting by Jean-François Millet completed in 1857. It is held in the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris.