The Return from the Fields Jean-François Millet

This sketch-like drawing depicts a peasant couple returning home from working in the fields. Whilst the man with a pitchfork in the background on the left is merely hinted at, the woman sits like a Virgin and Child, dominating the centre of the picture on a donkey, much like depictions of the Virgin Mary and Joseph fleeing to Egypt. The drawing is applied directly onto a lightly coloured canvas ground and offers us a rare insight into the creative process behind Millet’s paintings. In the next stage of the work, the artist would have further developed the composition using a glazed brown paint, before finally completing it with oil paints. A slightly more developed version of the same subject and technique was recently auctioned in London. Even though our drawing is merely an initial sketch, it already reveals the full richness of the composition of the subsequently executed painting *The Return from the Fields* (1873), which belongs to the artist’s late period. | 1814 Gruchy - Barbizon 1875 | 19. Jahrhundert | Arbeiten auf Papier | Nummer: 26x2100 | Provenance: Catherine Lemaire, Mme. J.-F. Millet, die Witwe des Künstlers (1827-1894) Paris, links unten mit dem Stempel (Lugt 1815); Nachlassauktion, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 24./25. April 1894; Privatsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Estimate:£5,422.64

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