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Shepherdess Seated in the Shade
Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
1872
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
65.4 x 54.9 cm (25 3/4 x 21 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Robert Dawson Evans Collection
Accession Number17.3235
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Young shepherdesses at work and at rest were one of Millet's favorite subjects. This tightly cropped example from late in his career features a girl kneeling in the woods, her spindle in her lap, her thoughts apparently elsewhere. The dappled sun on her face indicates Millet’s new approach to light and foreshadows the Impressionists' more radical experiments of just a few years later.
Catalogue Raisonné
Murphy 147
InscriptionsLower left: J. F. Millet
Provenance1872, sent by the artist to Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris; sold or exchanged by Durand-Ruel with Alfred Sensier (b. 1815 - d. 1877), Paris [see note 1]; December 10, 1877, posthumous Sensier sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 49, to Sensier, probably Marguerite Sensier. By 1888, Alexander Young, London [see note 2]; July 14, 1896, sold by Young to Boussod, Valadon et Cie., Paris (stock no. 24507); July 29, 1898, one-half share sold by Boussod, Valadon et Cie. to Isidore Montaignac (b. 1851 - d. 1924), Paris; October 17, 1900, remaining half-share sold to Montaignac [see note 3]. 1905, Edward Brandus (b. 1857 - d. 1937), New York; March 29-30, 1905, Brandus sale, Fifth Avenue Galleries, New York, lot 189, to Eugène Fischoff, Paris for $24,100. By 1908, Robert Dawson Evans (b. 1843 - d. 1909) and his wife, Marie Antoinette Hunt Evans (b. 1845 - d. 1917), Boston [see note 4]; 1917, bequest of Mrs. Robert Dawson Evans to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 1, 1917)
NOTES:
[1] On the early history, see Jean François-Millet (exh. cat. Hayward Gallery, London, January 22-March 7, 1976), cat. no. 142. [2] Young lent the painting to the Royal Academy, Glasgow, in 1888 (probably no. 729, "La Bergère") and in 1896 (no. 55, "La Rêverie"). [3] Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records, PI record nos. G-35932 (stock book 14, no. 24507, p. 106) and G-36978 (stock book 14, no. 25553, p. 175). [4] Robert Dawson Evans lent the painting in to "Exhibition of Pictures of the French School of 1830" (Copley Society, Boston, 1908), cat. no. 39.
NOTES:
[1] On the early history, see Jean François-Millet (exh. cat. Hayward Gallery, London, January 22-March 7, 1976), cat. no. 142. [2] Young lent the painting to the Royal Academy, Glasgow, in 1888 (probably no. 729, "La Bergère") and in 1896 (no. 55, "La Rêverie"). [3] Getty Provenance Index, Goupil et Cie. records, PI record nos. G-35932 (stock book 14, no. 24507, p. 106) and G-36978 (stock book 14, no. 25553, p. 175). [4] Robert Dawson Evans lent the painting in to "Exhibition of Pictures of the French School of 1830" (Copley Society, Boston, 1908), cat. no. 39.