Women Carrying Faggots

Jean-François Millet

ca. 1858 · Charcoal heightened with white gouache, charcoal border, on heavy laid gray-blue paper · Robert Lehman Collection

This extraordinary drawing in charcoal and gouache was once in the collection of the Dutch landscape painter Hendrick Mesdag (1831-1915), a collector of French artists of the Barbizon School. Millet was fascinated by the sight of peasants gathering, cutting, binding, and carrying faggots in the forest of Fontainebleau, his native landscape for much of his life. The Lehman sheet may relate to a painting of the same title now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg.

Artist: Jean-François Millet
Date: ca. 1858
Medium: Charcoal heightened with white gouache, charcoal border, on heavy laid gray-blue paper
Department: Robert Lehman Collection
Credit line: Robert Lehman Collection, 1975

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