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Twilight
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
about 1859–63
Medium/Technique
Black conté crayon and pastel on buff wove paper
Dimensions
50.5 x 38.9 cm (19 7/8 x 15 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy Adams Shaw, Jr., and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton
Accession Number17.1518
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope, Prints and Drawings
ClassificationsPastels
The radiant light here seems almost mystical, a feeling reinforced by the resemblance of the man and woman seated on a donkey to traditional images of Mary and Joseph with the Christ child fleeing from King Herod into Egypt.
Catalogue Raisonné
Murphy 78
InscriptionsUpper right: J. F. Millet
ProvenanceBy 1875, Emile Gavet (b. 1830 - d. 1904), Paris; June 11-12, 1875, Gavet sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 27, sold to Alexis-Eugene Détrimont (dealer), Paris, probably for Quincy Adams Shaw (b. 1825 - d. 1908), Boston; 1917, given to the MFA by Quincy Adams Shaw through Quincy A. Shaw, Jr. and Mrs. Marian Shaw Haughton to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 29, 1917)