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Morning Toilette
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
about 1860–62
Medium/Technique
Black conté crayon and pastel on cream laid paper
Dimensions
37.1 x 25.7 cm (14 5/8 x 10 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession Number17.1502
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPastels
Millet uses conté crayon embellished with hints of blue and yellow pastel to capture the grey light of morning. Millet painted other scenes of relaxation, but these typically contrasted the resting figures with their role as laborers. Here, however, he has portrayed one of his daughters in a private moment of personal attention, devoid of any reference to her work or position within the family.
This departure may reflect the influence of Dutch genre painting. One of Millet’s friends, the art critic Théophile Thoré, acquired Vermeer's Woman with a Pearl Necklace the same year that Millet produced this pastel. In both works, the woman stands in front of a window, attending to her toilette as the soft natural light illuminates the space around her. Despite these compositional similarities, the simplicity of Millet’s interior stays true to the modest nature of peasant life.
This departure may reflect the influence of Dutch genre painting. One of Millet’s friends, the art critic Théophile Thoré, acquired Vermeer's Woman with a Pearl Necklace the same year that Millet produced this pastel. In both works, the woman stands in front of a window, attending to her toilette as the soft natural light illuminates the space around her. Despite these compositional similarities, the simplicity of Millet’s interior stays true to the modest nature of peasant life.
Catalogue Raisonné
Murphy 82
InscriptionsLower right: J. F. Millet
ProvenanceAlfred Sensier (b. 1815 - d. 1877), Paris; December 10-18, 1877, posthumous Sensier sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 192, sold for fr. 2750 to Alphonse Legrand (dealer), Paris, probably for Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston [see note 1]; 1917, gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through his children, Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr. (b. 1869 - d. 1960) and Marian Shaw Haughton (b. 1866 - d. 1958) to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)
NOTES: [1] The pastel was first recorded in the Shaw collection by Edward Strahan, Art Treasures of America (Philadelphia, 1879), pp. 86-87. Shaw acquired a number of works by Millet from the Sensier sale through Legrand.
NOTES: [1] The pastel was first recorded in the Shaw collection by Edward Strahan, Art Treasures of America (Philadelphia, 1879), pp. 86-87. Shaw acquired a number of works by Millet from the Sensier sale through Legrand.