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In the Vineyard
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
1852–53
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
37.5 x 29.6 cm (14 3/4 x 11 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession Number17.1487
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
The architect Alfred Feydeau commissioned his friend Millet to paint a series of works highlighting the four seasons. "In the Vineyard," representing springtime, symbolizes the traditional notions of growth and new life. Working to ensure a fruitful harvest, a hunched man in the foreground ties a grapevine to a stake; another, emerging through the tall green vines, hammers stakes into the ground.
Catalogue Raisonné
Murphy 47
InscriptionsLower right: J. F. Millet
ProvenanceAbout 1852, commissioned from the artist by Alfred Feydeau, Paris [see note 1]. Alfred Sensier (b. 1815 - d. 1877), Paris; December 10-18, 1877, posthumous Sensier sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 45, sold for fr. 9000. Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston; 1917, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr. and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton, to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] Spring, in the series of the Four Seasons commissioned by Feydeau.
NOTES:
[1] Spring, in the series of the Four Seasons commissioned by Feydeau.