Profile of Works
Portrait of a Man
- c. 1840-41
- Oil on canvas
- 59.0 x 47.0 cm
The images of the TFAM’s collection on our website are available for free.
High-resolution image is available from PHOTO AGENCY.
Millet, who had an interest in painting from his early childhood, went to Cherbourg in 1833 and first studied painting with Paul Dumouchel, a portrait painter of David school. Two years later, he studied with Langlois, another Cherbourg painter and also a pupil of Gros. The following year, he went to Paris on a scholarship from the city of Cherbourg and entered the studio of Paul Delaroche, an academic painter.
However, due to that he could not adapt himself to the apprenticeship in the classroom, Millet often went to the Louvre to copy the works there. His work Portrait of Madame Lefranc was selected for the first time for the Salon of 1840 and enabled him to start a career as a painter. That was when he was at the age of 26.
He returned to Cherbourg to make a career for himself as a portrait painter. He soon received a commission from the Municipal Council of Cherbourg to paint a posthumous portrait of the former mayor and completed it. The Municipal Council, however, dissatisfied and refused to accept the portrait because it was too far from an idealized image of the former mayor. In the midst of success and failure mingled as a professional artist, Millet married his first wife, Pauline-Virginie Ono, in the autumn of 1841. The couple moved to Paris to make a new start, but it was uncertain if he would succeed.
This portrait of a man, considered to have been painted during such a difficult time, depicts a cool but ingenuous expression of a long-haired man with thin mustaches and thin beards using the limited number of colors and simple touches of brush. Among the portraits he painted around the same time, the Self Portrait (1841; Musée d’art Thomas Henry, Cherbourg) is well known, and its style exhibits similar characteristics to this portrait. His signature largely written on the lower left is exactly the same type as that on Portrait of Monsieur Ouitre (1845; Private collection, Japan), and the clear and bold handwriting conveys his freshness. It is one of the earliest portraits by Millet, who later became famous as a peasant painter who represented the Barbizon school.
The images of the TFAM’s collection on our website are available for free.
High-resolution image is available from PHOTO AGENCY.
ARTIST
Jean-François Millet
(1814-1875)
Exhibit history
- Sep 17, 2022 (Sat)～Nov 20, 2022 (Sun)
400 Years of Western Paintings - Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum - Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design (Toyama, Japan) - Jul 16, 2022 (Sat)～Sep 4, 2022 (Sun)
Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (Kumamoto, Japan) - Mar 19, 2022 (Sat)～May 8, 2022 (Sun)
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Saga Prefectural Art Museum (Saga, Japan) - Oct 23, 2021 (Sat)～Dec 26, 2021 (Sun)
The 400 Years of Western Painting: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts (Tochigi, Japan) - Jul 9, 2021 (Fri)～Aug 29, 2021 (Sun)
400 Years of European Paintings: Masterpieces From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art (Okayama, Japan) - Dec 15, 2020 (Tue)～Jan 31, 2021 (Sun)
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art Museum (Okinawa, Japan) - Sep 12, 2020 (Sat)～Nov 3, 2020 (Tue)
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum (Miyazaki, Japan) - Jul 22, 2020 (Wed)～Sep 6, 2020 (Sun)
400 Years of Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Oita Prefectural Art Museum (Oita, Japan) - Feb 20, 2020 (Thu)～Apr 12, 2020 (Sun)
How to Read Western Paintings: Masterpieces from Tokyo Fuji Art Museum The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki (Ibaraki, Japan) - Sep 3, 2019 (Tue)～Oct 22, 2019 (Tue)
Masterpieces of European Paintings From Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Collection Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum (Yamaguchi, Japan) - Jan 12, 2019 (Sat)～May 4, 2019 (Sat)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Shanghai PowerLong Museum (Shanghai, China) - Oct 23, 2018 (Tue)～Dec 23, 2018 (Sun)
500 Years of Western Paintings: Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum Tsinghua University Art Museum (Beijing, China) - Sep 29, 2012 (Sat)～Nov 4, 2012 (Sun)
The First Year of Fukushima Culture Restoration: Love, Life, Bond... Great Masters of Western Paintings -The 100 Masterpieces from the Collection of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum- Fukushima Prefectural Culture Center (Fukushima, Japan) - Oct 24, 2009 (Sat)～Dec 20, 2009 (Sun)
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Nagoya City Art Museum (Aichi, Japan) - Aug 1, 2009 (Sat)～Sep 27, 2009 (Sun)
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Matsumoto City Museum of Art (Nagano, Japan) - Jun 6, 2009 (Sat)～Jul 20, 2009 (Mon)
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Hiroshima Museum of Art (Hiroshima, Japan) - Apr 4, 2009 (Sat)～May 24, 2009 (Sun)
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Sapporo Art Museum (Hokkaido, Japan) - Jan 30, 2009 (Fri)～Mar 25, 2009 (Wed)
The Intersection of Paintings and Photographs Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art (Hokkaido, Japan) - Oct 12, 2002 (Sat)～Nov 17, 2002 (Sun)
Painting and etching of modern France Tagawa Museum of Art (Fukuoka, Japan) - Aug 10, 2002 (Sat)～Oct 6, 2002 (Sun)
Painting and etching of modern France Ueno Memorial Art Museum (Hyogo, Japan) - Jun 8, 2002 (Sat)～Jul 7, 2002 (Sun)
Painting and etching of modern France Takehara Museum of Art (Hiroshima, Japan) - Apr 27, 2002 (Sat)～Jun 2, 2002 (Sun)
Painting and etching of modern France The Tokushima Modern Art Museum (Tokushima, Japan) - Oct 14, 1997 (Tue)～Nov 30, 1997 (Sun)
Masterpieces of Western Oil Painting from the TFAM Collection Hong Kong Museum of Art (Hong Kong, China) - Nov 3, 1990 (Sat)～Dec 2, 1990 (Sun)
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Art Museum (Yongin-gun, Kyunggi-do, South Korea) - Sep 22, 1990 (Sat)～Oct 21, 1990 (Sun)
Masterpieces of European Oil Painting Ho-Am Gallery (Seoul, South Korea)
Origin of collections
- Provenance:
Mme. Marcelle Carlu, Paris
Reference
J. Mabire, “Il y a un mystère J.F. Millet,” Revue de la Manche, Ⅲ, no.10, 1961
L. Lepoittevin, Jean-François Millet portraitiste: essai et catalogue, Paris, 1971, no.33. Reproduced
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