Photo: nationalgallery.org.ukThe National Gallery will be marking the 150th anniversary of Jean-Francois Millet's death with an exhibition of 13 paintings and drawings. This will be the first UK exhibition of his work in nearly 50 years.
Photo: Musee d'Orsay, ParisMillet was born into a French farming family and became fascinated by the people who spent their lives working the land. His subjects were often the poorest in society - the lowly sowers, shepherd girls and woodcutters - and his unsentimental and realistic portrayal of them, depicting them with empathy and compassion, was completely new.
Photo: National GalleryThe nature of his subjects and the way he captured light effects inspired the Impressionists and Post-Impressionist painters, including Vincent van Gogh, Pissarro and Degas.
The exhibition will span his time living in the village of Barbizon in 1849 and his famous paintings of rural workers during the 1850s, right up to his final years in Paris.
Highlights will include L'Angelus from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and The Winnower from the National Gallery's own collection. The exhibition will also unite two drawings of shepherdesses from the Cooper Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
