Jean-François Millet
A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville1871

Not on view

Full-length oil painting of a woman in peasant dress carrying a large straw basket on her shoulder, walking across a green hillside under a cloudy sky

Artist or Maker: Jean-François Millet
France, Gruchy, 1814-1875
Title: A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville
Place Made: France
Date Made: 1871
Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on paperboard
Dimensions: 31 1/2 × 21 7/8 in. (80.01 × 55.56 cm) Frame: 44 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 3 in. (113.03 × 87.63 × 7.62 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
Accession Number: M.81.259.4
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: “It gives me a great and sad emotion to look like any stranger at the house where I was born and where my parents died . . . I went over the fields that I once plowed and sowed. Where are those who worked with me? Where are those dear eyes that, with me, gazed over the scratch of the sea?” This is how Millet described returning to his hometown of Gréville in 1870−71 to escape the violence of the Franco-Prussion War. His mournful nostalgia pervades A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville, conceived during this year of exile and painted on his return to Barbizon, the artist community outside of Paris where Millet had lived since 1849. The formidable woman fills the canvas and dominates her environment, as if a monument in the landscape. One arm is placed on her bent hip, the other outstretched with a cord to keep the milk basket steady on her back. While her physical efforts are palpable, she is backlit, casting her in shadow, and the sun seems to set behind her. The lighting infuses the picture with a profound sense of loss.

The painting is a testament to Millet’s dedication to peasant subjects. Turning away from the bustling urban center of Paris, artists like Millet and Théodore Rousseau (86.1) embraced the Fontainebleau forest’s environs, an intoxicating location for painting rural life and landscapes. Many of the artists associated with the Barbizon School eschewed industrialization and sought out nature or the pastoral for its perceived moral honesty in a time of change—allowing them to paint truthfully en plein air. Yet they also maintained deep ties to the Paris art scene and market, where they could show and sell their work. For Millet, the commitment to depicting ordinary farm laborers and the French country was not just an artistic quest for naturalism but a vocation compounded by his upbringing and interest in the humanity behind rural agricultural production. A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville displays this sensitive authenticity. This quality and Millet’s exceptional draftsmanship resulted in his enduring popularity with the following generation of avant-garde artists like Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.

2024
Provenance: The artist, sold to or through; [Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris]. Laurent Richard, Paris, by 1878. J. M. Rhodes, New York, sold 1902 to; [Paul Durand-Ruel, New York, sold 1902 to]; Charles M. Schwab, New York (sale, New York, Tobias, Fischer and Co., 24 Apr. 1940, lot 49, bought in), by inheritance to; Edward H. Schwab, Westport, CT. [Kleinberger, New York, in 1941]. [Vose Galleries, Providence and Boston, 1942]. [John Nicholson, New York and London, in 1943]. [Arthur Tooth Gallery, Los Angeles? in 1957]. Howard F. Ahmanson (1906–1968), Los Angeles, to; Dorothy Grannis Sullivan (1908–1979), Los Angeles, by 1973, through inheritance to her son; Howard Ahmanson, Jr. (b. 1950), Los Angeles, gift 1981 to; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Phil Freshman. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Report, July 1, 1981-June 30, 1983. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Conisbee, Philip et al. The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.

Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 2, French Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.

Jean-François Millet
A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville1871

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Jean-François Millet
France, Gruchy, 1814-1875
Title: A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville
Place Made: France
Date Made: 1871
Medium: Oil on canvas mounted on paperboard
Dimensions: 31 1/2 × 21 7/8 in. (80.01 × 55.56 cm) Frame: 44 1/2 × 34 1/2 × 3 in. (113.03 × 87.63 × 7.62 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
Accession Number: M.81.259.4
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: “It gives me a great and sad emotion to look like any stranger at the house where I was born and where my parents died . . . I went over the fields that I once plowed and sowed. Where are those who worked with me? Where are those dear eyes that, with me, gazed over the scratch of the sea?” This is how Millet described returning to his hometown of Gréville in 1870−71 to escape the violence of the Franco-Prussion War. His mournful nostalgia pervades A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville, conceived during this year of exile and painted on his return to Barbizon, the artist community outside of Paris where Millet had lived since 1849. The formidable woman fills the canvas and dominates her environment, as if a monument in the landscape. One arm is placed on her bent hip, the other outstretched with a cord to keep the milk basket steady on her back. While her physical efforts are palpable, she is backlit, casting her in shadow, and the sun seems to set behind her. The lighting infuses the picture with a profound sense of loss.

The painting is a testament to Millet’s dedication to peasant subjects. Turning away from the bustling urban center of Paris, artists like Millet and Théodore Rousseau (86.1) embraced the Fontainebleau forest’s environs, an intoxicating location for painting rural life and landscapes. Many of the artists associated with the Barbizon School eschewed industrialization and sought out nature or the pastoral for its perceived moral honesty in a time of change—allowing them to paint truthfully en plein air. Yet they also maintained deep ties to the Paris art scene and market, where they could show and sell their work. For Millet, the commitment to depicting ordinary farm laborers and the French country was not just an artistic quest for naturalism but a vocation compounded by his upbringing and interest in the humanity behind rural agricultural production. A Norman Milkmaid at Gréville displays this sensitive authenticity. This quality and Millet’s exceptional draftsmanship resulted in his enduring popularity with the following generation of avant-garde artists like Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.

2024
Provenance: The artist, sold to or through; [Paul Durand-Ruel, Paris]. Laurent Richard, Paris, by 1878. J. M. Rhodes, New York, sold 1902 to; [Paul Durand-Ruel, New York, sold 1902 to]; Charles M. Schwab, New York (sale, New York, Tobias, Fischer and Co., 24 Apr. 1940, lot 49, bought in), by inheritance to; Edward H. Schwab, Westport, CT. [Kleinberger, New York, in 1941]. [Vose Galleries, Providence and Boston, 1942]. [John Nicholson, New York and London, in 1943]. [Arthur Tooth Gallery, Los Angeles? in 1957]. Howard F. Ahmanson (1906–1968), Los Angeles, to; Dorothy Grannis Sullivan (1908–1979), Los Angeles, by 1973, through inheritance to her son; Howard Ahmanson, Jr. (b. 1950), Los Angeles, gift 1981 to; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Schaefer, Scott, and Peter Fusco. European Painting and Sculpture in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: an Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987.
Phil Freshman. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Report, July 1, 1981-June 30, 1983. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Conisbee, Philip et al. The Ahmanson Gifts: European Masterpieces in the Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.

Lehmbeck, Leah, editor. Gifts of European Art from The Ahmanson Foundation. Vol. 2, French Painting and Sculpture. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.