Sheepshearing Beneath a Tree

Jean-François Millet

ca. 1854 · Conté crayon with stumping, heightened with pen and brown ink and white gouache on wove paper · Drawings and Prints

The subject of sheep shearing occupied Millet for much of the 1850s. This composition is similar to that of a painting in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which Millet exhibited at the Salon of 1853. He produced several other drawings on this theme, a second painting, and a watercolor that was delivered to his friend and biographer Alfred Sensier in 1857. Finally, he adapted the design in a painting exhibited at the Salon of 1861.

Artist

Jean-François Millet

Date

ca. 1854

Medium

Conté crayon with stumping, heightened with pen and brown ink and white gouache on wove paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Miss G. Louise Robinson, 1940