Jean-François Millet

The artist’s studio (L.1460);

with Jill Newhouse, New York,

where acquired by Diane A. Nixon

Jean-François Millet visited Vichy over two consecutive summers in 1866 and 1867. During these trips to the Auvergne region of France the artist would carry small sketchbooks to document his daily forays into the countryside. Inspired by the once-volcanic landscape around Vichy, which was in itself such a far cry from the flat plains of Barbizon, Millet worked tirelessly, sketching numerous different sites in pencil each day. These preliminary drawings would then be worked up in the evening with a soft reed pen and brown ink. Finally, those that he deemed most successful would be further heightened with different shades of green, brown and gray watercolor, a technique that we see so characteristically employed in the Nixon drawing as well as other surviving works from this period.¹

^1.See Sentier bordé d'arbres, sale, New York, Christie’s, 13 November 2021, lot 516 and Wooded hillside near Vichy, sale, New York, Christie’s, 26 October 2005, lot 218