Jean-François Millet

(French, 1814-1875)

Laitière normande (Norman milkmaid) 13 x 10 1/8in (33 x 25.7cm)

Footnotes

Painted 1853-54.

Provenance
J. C. Runkle, New York by 1883; his sale, Chickering Hall, New York, 8 March 1883, lot 65 as A Water Carrier;
John T. Martin, Brooklyn by 1887; his sale, American Art Association, New York, 15-16 April 1909, lot 82 as A Water Carrier;
M. Knoedler & Co., New York;
Edwin E. Jackson, New York, by 1913, thence by descent to
Caroline Mather Jackson (Mrs. E. Jackson) and thence bequeathed to
Jesse Boorum Bingham, 1922, thence by descent to
Arthur W. Bingham Jr., New York, thence by descent to Mary D. Bingham, New York.
Her estate sale, Christie's, New York, 30 October 2002, lot 22.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature
Private Collection of Mr. John T. Martin, New York, 1887, no. 90;
A. Hoeber, The Barbizon Painters, New York, 1915, opp. p. 7 (illustrated);
R. Herbert, "La laitière normande á Gréville de J.-F. Millet," La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, February 1980, p. 20, (several references to Norman Milkmaid under discussion of Barber Institute version of painting).

Exhibited
New York, Wildenstein, Paintings from St. James' Collectors, 1955.

Passed down for generations into a New York family, the present work has not been seen by the public at large for nearly 90 years. A photograph of it published in 1915 was assumed to be of the almost identical version currently in the Barber Museum of Art (Birmingham, England) which caused confusion and conflation of the two works.

In her catalogue note from the 2002 sale, Alexandra Murphy suggested that Millet may have worked on both works simultaneously, as their similarity indicates. This work is one of the first in a long series of milkmaids, a subject that had fascinated Millet throughout his life and which offered him plenty of opportunities to pay homage to his beloved native Normandy.

Lit from behind by a low moon that is casting a warm light over the entire scene, the milkmaid fills up the composition with her monumental figure, reminiscent of Greek caryatids. Balancing on her shoulder is a copper milk jug that is closed by a bunch of grasses, a custom typical for that region.
The rising moon is suggestive of the long work day and the solitary return home after the chores of the day have been completed.

Millet's realist depiction of the Norman Milkmaid contrasts dramatically with the previous century's whimsical representations of elegant milkmaids partaking in fête champêtres, unaware of the hardships of country living. By the 1840s, Millet sought to represent the true nature of hard country labor and that translated into several sketches of milkmaids that he eventually worked into finished oils over the following two decades.

In 1874, Millet painted his last milkmaid, now in the Musée d'Orsay, in which he repeated the same posture and the same position of the outstretched arm, balancing the milk jug by a rope. In this work, the moon is missing and the light of day bathes the composition with a milky glow. Professor Robert Herbert, who wrote extensively on Millet's milkmaid imagery, seems to have discovered the genesis of the theme in a watercolor from 1840. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the present work that was instrumental in starting an almost obsessive preoccupation with the imagery of the solitary female figure in a country landscape.

Alexandra R. Murphy had confirmed the authenticity of this work for the 2002 sale.