JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET (GRUCHY 1814-1875 BARBIZON)

In 1864, thanks to the architect Alfred-Louis Feydeau, Millet received a commission from a wealthy financier in Colmar, Charles-Xavier Thomas, to decorate the dining room of his Parisian mansion on the Boulevard Haussmann. The artist represented the Four Seasons through mythological subjects. The ceiling illustrated Autumn, while three large lateral panels were devoted to Summer, Winter, and lastly Spring – where Daphnis and Chloé are seen feeding the birds.
The present pastel is a preparatory study for Spring, formerly in the Matsuka collection and now in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (fig. 1; inv. P. 1959-146). Another pastel related to the painted decoration, larger (66 x 34.2 cm) and more finished than the present drawing (perhaps a ricordo), was on the art market in 1937 (J.-F. Millet. A Loan Exhibition in aid of the National Library for the Blind, exhib. cat., Wilsdenstein & Co., London, 1969, no. 40).


Fig. 1. Jean-François Millet, Spring (Daphnis and Chloë), National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.