+ Expand

Dimensions: 27 by 45cm., 10 3/4 by 17 3/4 in.

+ Expand

Provenance: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Dr. Philipp Otto Cornill, Frankfurt, Germany, before 1900, until his death in 1911
Dr. Francisco Llobet, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by 1926

+ Expand

Exhibited: Paris, Exposition Universelle, Exposition centennale de l'art français, 1900, no. 1178

+ Expand

Literature: Ernst Kuhnel, 'Die Sammlung Francisco Llobet in Buenos Aires', Kunst und Kunstler, August 1926, p. 422, illustrated

+ Expand

Notes: Les Bûcherons prenant leur repas was drawn by Jean-François Millet during his first years in Barbizon, probably between 1850 and 1853. As Millet became more familiar with his new surroundings, he was particularly attracted to the wood cutters and road workers who toiled (and in many cases actually lived) in the immense Forest of Fontainebleau. Unlike the shepherds and farm workers who first caught Millet's attention, the forest labourers were outsiders to the Barbizon community and relatively neglected in art, providng Millet with distinctive new inspirations.

Bûcherons prenant leur repas is particularly attractive for the naturalistic poses of the men who lean against their bundles of firewood and stretch across the foreground. Together with the rapid, ragged style of Millet's drawn line in this work, the casualness of these characters conveys a sense of direct observation. This is probably Millet's first use of the figure propped on his elbows, with one bare foot in the air, a pose that the artist clearly enjoyed and later adapted for a much more refined painting of resting harvesters (Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Bûcherons prenant leur repas is unusually large among Millet's early drawings and its distinctly horizontal format suggests that Millet may have intended the image for reproduction in one of the illustrated journals such as Le Magasin pittoresque for whom Millet created work in these years.