Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet is closely associated with the French rural tradition, portraying peasants at work and rest in fields, barns and pastures through painting, drawing and printmaking. His subjects — spade-wielding labourers, shepherdesses, a woman at a churn — are rendered with unsentimental weight, and the same motifs recur across his oils, conté crayon drawings and woodcuts. This archive gathers 75 sheets spanning 1814 to 1874, with woodcut and wood engraving on chine collé, proofs, oils on canvas and conté crayon on wove paper, including impressions up to 1874.

75 works in the collection · All public domain (CC0)

The Diggers (1814–75)

1814–75 · Etching on thin laid paper; fourth (final) state

A Woman Burning Weeds

1830–75 · Pen and brown (iron gall) ink, watercolor and wash over graphite on laid paper

A Seated Shepherd with His Dog and Sheep

1830–75 · Conté crayon on wove paper

Seated Peasant (1830–75)

1830–75 · Etching (undescribed first state?)printed in red ink on wove paper

Peasant Seated on the Ground

1830–75 · Etching on laid paper

The Goose Girl

1830–75 · Drypoint on thin wove paper

The Diggers (1830–75)

1830–75 · Etching on heavy wove paper; first state of four

Seated Shepherdess

1830–75 · Woodcut on chine collé; second state of two

Evening, from "Four Times of the Day"

1830–75 · Wood engraving on chine collé

Night, from "Four Times of the Day"

1830–75 · Wood engraving on chine collé

Landscape (1830–75)

1830–75 · Etching

The Diggers (1830–99)

1830–99 · Woodcut

Spinner from the Auvergne

1830–99 · Woodcut

The Gleaners (1834–75)

1834–75 · Etching printed in brown/black ink on laid paper; second state of two

Woman Emptying a Bucket

1834–75 · Woodcut; only state

Proof from a block of sketches

1834–75 · Woodcut, laid down on card; second (final) state; posthumous impression

Sketches

1834–75 · Woodcut; second (final) state; posthumous impression

The Village Dressmakers

1835–1900 · Lithograph

The Sower

1851 · Lithograph; second (final) state; 1879 or later; posthumous impression

Simon Butler (Indian Trails, vol. II)

1852 · Lithograph printed with tonal plate on chine collé; second (final) state

Sheepshearing

1853 · Wood engraving on chine collé; proof

Woman Cutting Wheat

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

Man Threshing Wheat

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

The Wheat Gatherer

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé

The Reaper

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

The Sheaf Binder

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

Woodcutter Making a Faggot

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

The Spinner

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé

The Wheat Reaper

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

The Raker

1853 · Woodcut on chine collé; proof

The Seamstress

1853 · Etching on chine collé; second state

Woodcutter Trimming Faggots

1853–54 · Conté crayon with stumping on beige laid paper

Woman with a Churn

1854 · Conté crayon on wove paper

Garden Scene

1854 · Oil on canvas

A Shepherdess and Her Flock in the Shade of Trees

1854–55 · Conté crayon and pastel on laid paper

Peasant Pushing a Wheelbarrow

1855 · Etching printed in brown/black ink; second state of four

Peasant Pushing A Wheelbarrow

1855 · Etching printed in brown/black ink on chine collé; first state of four

The Sewer

1855 · Etching in brown/black ink on laid paper; third state of three

Woman Churning Butter (1855–56, Met-Objekt 4901)

1855–56 · Etching on thin laid paper; third state of three (final state)

Woman Churning Butter (1855–56, Met-Objekt 4913)

1855–56 · Etching; third (final) state

Shepherdess Seated on a Rock

1856 · Oil on wood

Mid-Day, from "Four Times of the Day"

1860 · Wood engraving on chine collé

Morning, from 'Four Times of the Day'

1860 · Wood engraving on chine collé

Cooling the Porridge (1861, Met-Objekt 4902)

1861 · Etching on laid paper; fifth state of five

Cooling the Porridge (1861, Met-Objekt 4906)

1861 · Etching; third state of five

Cooling the Porridge (1861, Met-Objekt 4909)

1861 · Etching on chine collé; fifth state of five

Shepherdess Knitting (1862, Met-Objekt 4883)

1862 · Etching in brown ink on laid paper; only state

Shepherdess Knitting (1862, Met-Objekt 4910)

1862 · Etching in brown ink on wove paper; only state

Digger (1863, Met-Objekt 4920)

1863 · Woodcut; second (final) state; posthumous edition

Digger (1863, Met-Objekt 4921)

1863 · Woodcut in brown ink; second (final) state; posthumous impression

Peasants Going to Work (1863, Met-Objekt 4938)

1863 · Etching in brown ink on laid paper; seventh state of seven

Peasants Going to Work (1863, Met-Objekt 4939)

1863 · Etching in brown/black ink on thin laid paper; seventh (final) state

Hamlet in a Wheat Field, Vichy

1867 · Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, and watercolor

Autumn Landscape with a Flock of Turkeys

1872–73 · Oil on canvas

Sewing by Lamplight

1873 · Etching on chine collé

Man Resting on a Spade

1874 · Woodcut; only state

A Young Man Seated, Bent over a Reclining Figure

ca. 1845–50 · Red chalk with stumping on laid paper

Retreat from the Storm

ca. 1846 · Oil on canvas

Roadworkers at Lunch

ca. 1850–52 · Conté crayon with stumping, heightened with white gouache, on laid paper

A Shepherdess with Her Flock

ca. 1852 · Conté crayon with stumping on laid paper

Two Women Sewing by Lamplight

ca. 1853 · Zinc plate etching; second (final) state

Sheepshearing Beneath a Tree

ca. 1854 · Conté crayon with stumping, heightened with pen and brown ink and white gouache on wove paper

The Diggers (ca. 1855)

ca. 1855 · Etching; fourth state of four

The Gleaners (ca. 1855–56)

ca. 1855–56 · Etching on chine collé; first state of two

The Wool Carder (ca. 1855–56, Met-Objekt 4911)

ca. 1855–56 · Etching; only state

The Wool Carder (ca. 1855–56, Met-Objekt 4912)

ca. 1855–56 · Etching; only state

Man with a Spade

ca. 1855–58 · Conté crayon on laid paper

Women Carrying Faggots

ca. 1858 · Charcoal heightened with white gouache, charcoal border, on heavy laid gray-blue paper

Landscape, Vichy (ca. 1866–67, Met-Objekt 4890)

ca. 1866–67 · Pen and brown ink over graphite. Blue, black and green chalk on laid paper (watermark: bunch of grapes)

Landscape, Vichy (ca. 1866–67, Met-Objekt 4892)

ca. 1866–67 · Pen and brown (iron gall) ink, brush and brown and green wash, over graphite

Calling the Cows Home

ca. 1872 · Oil on wood

Haystacks: Autumn

ca. 1874 · Oil on canvas

Shepherd and His Flock

late 19th century · Pastel on papier bleuté

Moonlight

n.d. · Woodcut

Woman with a Rake

probably 1856–57 · Oil on canvas