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Jean Fran ç ois Miller (October 4, 1814- January 20, 1875)
1、 Character Introduction
Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875) was the most beloved painter in modern French painting history. His simple and friendly artistic language is especially loved by the vast number of French farmers. He came from a family of farmers and showed a genius in painting at a young age. Encouraged by his teacher, he aspired to learn painting.
Jean Fran ç ois Miller was born into a peasant family in Normandy and grew crops during his youth. At the age of 23, he went to Paris to study under the painter DelaRoche. His classmates in the studio looked down on Miller, calling him a "rustic mountain man". The teacher also couldn't stand Miller and often scolded him, saying, "You seem to know everything, but you don't know anything." This young man from the countryside really disliked Paris, saying that the city was simply a chaotic and barren desert, and only the Louvre was the "oasis" of art. When he walked into the lobby of the Louvre, he was pleasantly surprised and said, "I seem to have unconsciously come to an art kingdom where everything has turned my fantasies into reality."
Miller was poor and destitute in Paris, overwhelmed by the blow and poverty of his deceased wife. In order to survive, he used sketches to change shoes, oil paintings to change beds to sleep on, and even painted signs for midwives to exchange for some money. To cater to the sensory stimulation of the bourgeoisie, Miller also painted vulgar and vulgar nude women. Once Miller heard people talking about him and saying, "This is the Miller who can't paint anything except for vulgar nudity." This broke his heart. From then on, he made up his mind to no longer cater to anyone and resolutely pursue his own artistic path.
Starting from struggling to make a living by selling paintings, the lackluster Rococo style of fragrant paintings undoubtedly laid a solid artistic foundation for Miller's career, which was full of desolation, bitterness, and solidity. Until the painter settled in the village of Babizon in Fontainebleau, he opened up the French Barbizon School with realistic rural landscape paintings, depicting the trees, fields, and the honest and simple laborers in the countryside, making people moved by the elegance of the countryside depicted by the painter and impressed by the painter's divine ink expression.
In 1849, a black fever broke out in Paris, and Miller moved with his family to the village of Barbizon near Fontainebleau in the suburbs of Paris. By then, Miller was 35 years old. In the village of Barbizon, Miller met painters such as Cologne, Rousseau, and Trollon. In this impoverished and isolated village, Miller lived there for 27 years.
Miller has a special and profound affection for nature and rural life. He wakes up early and returns late, works in the fields in the morning, and paints in small houses with limited light in the afternoon. Miller's life was exceptionally difficult, but this did not diminish his love and pursuit of art. He often made charcoal strips and sketched on his own because he didn't have the money to buy paint. Miller loves life, labor, and farmers. He once said, "Regardless, the theme of farmers is the most suitable for me."
Miller's first representative work in Barbizon was The Sower. In the future, he successively created masterpieces such as "The Picker" and "The Evening Bell".
2、 Main works
1. The Sower
Planter (1850) 101 x 82.5cm collection, Boston Museum of Art, United States
In the desolate wheat field, the sower strides and waves his arm, sowing the seeds of hope. Flying birds hover in the air, searching for food and plundering the seeds they sow - it is a magnificent picture of the relationship between humans and nature.
This painting has caused unease among the "high citizens" who see images similar to the people on the streets of Paris during the June Revolution in the rhythmic and powerful movements of the sowers. But progressive individuals at that time had different reactions.
Writer Hugo sees praise for the creative power of the people in this painting and therefore fully affirms it. Art critic Gottier said that this image was drawn from the soil of the land where seeds were sown, which is too realistic. The painter used a simple and concise sculpture like image to summarize intriguing content, so Dutch painter Van Gogh commented, "In Miller's works, the real image also has symbolic significance."
Miller has never painted scenes of peasant rebellion, perhaps due to the religious sentiment embedded in his gentle humanistic spirit. But the image he painted of a laborer with calloused hands and feet, dressed in coarse clothes and eating rough food, is actually a kind of resistance against the upper class society, which is indulging in extravagance and extravagance, although this resistance is relatively mild. This painting "The Sower" is like this.
2. "Shepherd Girl"
"The Shepherd Girl" (1864) Canvas Oil Painted at the Paris Museum of Art Olympiad
In this painting, the painter captures a very lyrical scene of a shepherd's life (sky, grassland, flock, praying girl): a high horizon, flat and vast, the shepherdess draped in an old felt shawl, wrapped in a red headscarf, lonely with the flock... This shepherdess wrapped in a dark red embroidered hat on her head, covered in thick felt on her body, with her back facing the flock and colorful clouds, weaving a sweater on her hand. Her slightly bowed figure and focused expression are like a devout prayer.
In fact, it combines the strengths of "Picking Up Harvests" and "Evening Bell": the shepherdess who bows her head to pray and thanks God for giving her a job opportunity, and like other paintings, it also embodies the simple heart of farmers and the devout religious sentiment. The Shepherdess stood in the afterglow of the setting sun. Although her face and body were slightly dimmer than the surrounding scenery and the sheep due to the backlight, Miller's smooth and calm colors depicted the Shepherdess's body, which had to be slightly hunched due to the pressure of life, like a statue standing on the ground, making it difficult for people not to take a few more glances; Despite her shabby clothes and tired expression, in Miller's eyes, she and the other farmers were heroes who worked day after day to nurture this great nation and create this beautiful country, with an ordinary poetic and picturesque atmosphere.
Some people say that the devout shepherdess is Miller, or rather his spiritual incarnation, and throughout his life, it is the author's own piety towards the earth and nature. The melancholic and sorrowful shepherdess stands on the wilderness in the afterglow of the sunset, seemingly silently praying. Miller, due to his own experience, felt the bitterness and pain of poor laborers, so he created this painting with a compassionate and sympathetic attitude.
Miller, a farmer painter, has been watching farmers struggle for survival in almost inhumane and strict labor since he was young. Therefore, when he gazes at nature, he does not ignore the human beings who combine with the earth in nature. Compared to Dutch folk paintings, there are no dramatic incidents in this painting, only flocks of sheep in the twilight and shepherds bowing in prayer. At first glance, the seemingly casual composition enhances the serene atmosphere of the picture through the deep dusk. This painting unexpectedly received unanimous praise from Miller at the official exhibition, perhaps because of the "reality" captured in the painting, Miller's works also deeply moved us beyond the times.
In 1864, Miller participated in the Paris salon art exhibition with this painting "The Shepherdess" and received high praise. This painting is meticulously, uniformly, and harmoniously portrayed in terms of color and the image of a shepherdess. The lyrical melancholy enhances the touching power of the entire painting, and the authenticity enhances the local atmosphere of the entire painting.
3. "The Picker"
"The Picker" (1857) Oil painting in the collection of the Paris Museum of Odyssey
This painting depicts the most ordinary scene in a rural area: in autumn, the golden fields look endless, and on the land after the wheat harvest, three farmers are bending over and carefully picking up abandoned wheat ears to supplement their food at home. The pile of wheat stacks behind them, resembling a small hill, seemed to have nothing to do with them. Although we cannot see the appearance and facial expressions of these three rural women clearly, Miller depicted their figures with a solemn beauty reminiscent of classical sculpture.
The movements of the three rural women have slightly different angles and a beautiful chain of movements, as if they are a decomposition diagram of a rural woman's picking of ears. The peasant woman wearing a red headscarf was quickly picking it up, while the other hand held the big bundle in the bag of wheat ears. It was evident that she had been picking it up for a while, with a small harvest in the bag; The woman wearing a blue headscarf has been exhausted by the repeated bending movements, and she appears exhausted. She propped her left hand behind her waist to support her body's strength; The woman on the right, with her profile half bent and a bundle of wheat in her hand, is carefully inspecting the wheat field that has already been picked up, looking for any missing wheat ears.
On the screen, Miller uses a charming warm yellow color tone, and the calm and rich colors of the red and blue headscarves also melt into the yellow. The whole picture is quiet and solemn, conveying Miller's profound sympathy for the difficult life of farmers and his special love for rural life in a pastoral style.
The technique of the entire work is extremely simple and simple. The clear sky and golden wheat fields appear very harmonious, and the rich colors are unified in a soft tone, presenting a charming rural scenery before us. Like other representative works of Miller, although its content is easy to understand and concise, it is not mediocre or superficial, but rather profound and thought-provoking, which is also an important characteristic of Miller's art.
4. Evening Prayer
"Evening Prayer"/"Evening Bell" (L'Ang é lus) (1859) Painted on canvas in the Louvre collection in Paris
It is one of Jean Fran ç ois Miller's most famous works, depicting a farmer couple who, when the church bells ring in the distance, put down their work and pray devoutly. After Miller's death, this painting changed hands several times, and the last Frenchman bought it for 800000 francs and donated it to the French government. The evening prayer is currently housed in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
Between 1858 and 1859, Miller created his masterpiece "The Evening Bell". One is called "Evening Bell" and the other is "Evening Prayer", which often causes confusion. These two names, one virtual and one real, cannot highly summarize the content of painting, but since it is a convention, let's call both names!
This painting deeply reflects a complex spiritual life of farmers: in the picture, the sun sets in the west, and a day of hard work in the fields comes to an end. A farmer couple had just heard the church bell ringing in the distance, so they naturally and habitually bent down and took off their hats to pray. The painter focuses on depicting these two images as devout to fate. On the land filled with dusk mist, two creators of agricultural products stand, thanking God for giving them the grace of a day's labor and praying for blessings. This favor is the two small bags of potatoes on the small car next to the farmer's wife! How could such a favor be the reward for their day's labor? The images in the painting appear so isolated and helpless, reflecting the farmer's character of being obedient and content with adversity. A rudimentary production tool, an iron fork for digging potatoes on the left, and a broken basket for holding food between the two. Apart from that, there was only their tattered jacket on their bodies. The sunset has cast a bleak atmosphere over the earth, and the painter has devoted all his efforts here to depict this bleak atmosphere, allowing it to envelop the image of this lovely and pitiful working couple. He emphasized the piety and simplicity of the farming couple, expressing his infinite sympathy for the living conditions of farmers.
In terms of color tone, the twilight is heavy, with farmers taking off their hats and women clasping their palms in prayer. The yellow brown tone is solemn and warm, and the horizon and characters form two solemn crosses. Winckelman can be used to comment on the famous lines of ancient Greek sculpture, "noble simplicity, serene greatness.". Later on, we can only feel this sentiment from afar in Van Gogh's "The Potato Eater" and his depictions of agricultural shoes, big and small. They are both great peasant painters, experiencing poetry in their daily labor and frugal life.
5. "The Man Helping the Hoe"
"The Man Helping the Hoe" (1863) Oil painting in San Francisco private collection
In 1862, Miller completed "The Man Relying on the Hoe", strongly demonstrating the weight of life's pain. On a barren land, a young farmer is holding a hoe to catch his breath. This person finds it difficult to straighten their waist from morning till night, so they can only occasionally stop and take a breath. The young man who was hoeing stood leaning against the hoe in the hot field, looking up to catch his breath and looking up into the distance. It seems that the heavy weight of life and labor has exhausted his energy, and there are still large wheat fields waiting to be cultivated in front of him. In the distance, there is the hazy figure of the city, which is another kind of life that does not belong to him. This is undoubtedly a work that challenges society, depicting a solemn image of a laborer, where the painter utters a mournful cry.
Miller's "The Man Who Helps the Hoe" is beautiful. Although on the barren land covered in weeds and piles of stones in the picture, he held onto his hoe, panting heavily, exhausted and unable to straighten his waist. But "beauty cannot be expressed by the form and color on his face." His raised head and distant eyes revealed his inner sorrow and the hardships of fate, expressing his expectation and longing for a happy life.
6. Feeding
"Feeding" (1872) in the collection of the Louvre in Paris
The three children sitting on the doorstep in order of size in "Feeding" appear very innocent, waiting for their mother to take turns feeding them spoonfuls. At the end of the stone house wall, which is also the far right side of the picture, one can see the father of the child working in the field, who is a breadwinner. Anyone who has lived in the countryside for a period of time can personally feel this scene. So Miller's oil paintings will have a stronger resonance among the vast audience in China.
The size of this painting is not large, only 74 centimeters high, which inevitably reminds people of the small oil paintings that Miller did in Babyson Village. Due to economic constraints, he is unable to purchase sufficient oil painting materials and often draws materials locally in rural areas, sometimes only having to draw more sketches.
7. "Farmers who Graft Trees"
"The Farmer Grafting Trees" (1855) Cloth and Oil Paintings in the Louvre Collection in Paris
The prominent stylistic feature of Miller's works is their heaviness and clumsiness. He seems to not pay special attention to the depiction and carving of details, but rather focus on the shaping of roughness, strength, and overall sense; The character relationships, color relationships, and oil painting techniques of the farmer, wife, and baby in the picture appear natural, simple, and approachable, conveying a friendly family atmosphere.
8. "The Bathing Goose Girl"
"The Goose Girl Bathing" (1863) 38cm x 46.5cm Cloth, Oil Painted Baltimore Walters Art Museum Collection
Miller portrays a pure rural atmosphere in this work. The picture depicts a young girl grazing geese in the riverbank jungle, about to take a bath in the water. The girl's naked body is portrayed by the painter as plump and sturdy, youthful and healthy. The dense jungle highlights the beautiful curves of the girl's body, and the distant flock of geese adds vitality to the picture. The painter used realistic techniques and keen observation to depict the light and shadow of the jungle, and highlighted the naked body of the young woman with light and shadow effects, making the picture appear unified and harmonious.
3、 Character evaluation
Jean Fran ç ois Miller was the most outstanding realist painter and Barbizonian painter in 19th century France, known for his portrayal of peasant themes. Renowned in the French art world for the touching human nature depicted in rural folk paintings. Miller is the greatest pastoral painter in France. People are accustomed to calling him Miller, but in French pronunciation, it should be translated as "Miye". Miller's works mainly depict the labor and life of farmers. He observes nature with a fresh perspective and has a strong rural life atmosphere.
Roman Roland pointed out in his book "The Miller Biography" that "Miller, a classical master who infuses all his spirit into eternal meaning more than a moment, has never been a painter like him who gives such a majestic and great feeling and expression to the land to which all things belong.".
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