Title:  McClure’s Magazine, Vol.  VI., No. 6, May, 1896

Author:  Various

Release Date:  August 27, 2004 [EBook #13304]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK MCCLURE’S magazine, Vol. ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Sandra Brown and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

[Illustration:  Study from nature.  By Jean Francois Millet.

Reproduced by permission of Braun, Clement & Co.]

[Illustration:  Millet’s coat of arms.

Reproduced by permission of Braun, Clement & Co.  A facsimile of one of the little drawings which Millet was accustomed to make for acquaintances and collectors of autographs, and which he laughingly called his “armes parlantes.”]

[Illustration:  Portrait of Jean Francois Millet, drawn by himself.

Reproduced by permission of Braun, Clement & Co.  Of this portrait, drawn in 1847, Sensier, in his “Life” of Millet, says:  “It is in crayon, and life-sized.  The head is melancholy, like that of Albert Duerer; the profound regard is filled with intelligence and goodness.”]

MCCLURE’S MAGAZINE.

Vol.  VI.

May, 1896.

No. 6.

A CENTURY OF PAINTING.

Jean Francois Millet.—­Parentage and early influences.—­His life at
barbizon.—­Visits to Millet in his studio.—­His personal
appearance.—­His own comments on his pictures.—­Passages from his
conversation.

By will H. Low.

These papers, disclaiming any other authority than that which appertains to the conclusions of a practising painter who has thought deeply on the subject of his art, have nevertheless avoided the personal equation as much as possible.  A conscientious endeavor has been made to consider the work of each painter in the place which has been assigned him by the concensus of opinion in the time which has elapsed since his work was done.  In the consideration of Jean Francois Millet, however, I desire for the nonce to become less impersonal, for the reason that it was my privilege to know him slightly, and in the case of one who as a man and as a painter occupies a place so entirely his own, the value of recorded personal impressions is greater, at least for purposes of record, than the registration of contemporary opinion concerning him.