1814-1875 French Jean Francois Millet Galleries Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aim??e-Henriette-Adelaide Henry Millet, members of the peasant community in the village of Gruchy, in Gr??ville-Hague (Normandy). Under the guidance of two village priests, Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors, before being sent to Cherbourg in 1833 to study with a portrait painter named Paul Dumouchel. By 1835 he was studying full-time with Lucien-Th??ophile Langlois, a pupil of Baron Gros, in Cherbourg. A stipend provided by Langlois and others enabled Millet to move to Paris in 1837, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Paul Delaroche. In 1839 his scholarship was terminated, and his first submission to the Salon was rejected. After his first painting, a portrait, was accepted at the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg to begin a career as a portrait painter. However, the following year he married Pauline-Virginie Ono, and they moved to Paris. After rejections at the Salon of 1843 and Pauline's death by consumption, Millet returned again to Cherbourg. In 1845 Millet moved to Le Havre with Catherine Lemaire, whom he would marry in a civil ceremony in 1853; they would have nine children, and remain together for the rest of Millet's life. In Le Havre he painted portraits and small genre pieces for several months, before moving back to Paris. It was in Paris in the middle 1840s that Millet befriended Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacque, and Theodore Rousseau, artists who, like Millet, would become associated with the Barbizon school; Honor?? Daumier, whose figure draftsmanship would influence Millet's subsequent rendering of peasant subjects; and Alfred Sensier, a government bureaucrat who would become a lifelong supporter and eventually the artist's biographer. In 1847 his first Salon success came with the exhibition of a painting Oedipus Taken down from the Tree, and in 1848 his Winnower was bought by the government.  Related Paintings of Jean Francois Millet :. | Spring | People go to work | Countrywoman | Winter | Sheep |
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Jan Frans van Dael
an excellent painter of fruit and flowers, was born at Antwerp in 1764, but went early to Paris and settled there. He was self-inatructed in art, but made such progress that he soon distinguished himself at the exhibitions, on one occasion obtaining the prize of 4000 francs, and on two others, the large gold medal. His style is in the manner of Van Huysum and Van Spaendonck, although he did not confine himself strictly to fruit and flowers, but painted other subjects, in which such objects might with propriety be introduced. Two of his pictures, which he painted for the Empress Josephine, represent 'An Offering to Flora,' and 'The Tomb of Julia'; the latter is now in the Louvre. His master-piece, known as 'La Croisee,' the fruit of three years' labour, was likewise purchased by the Empress Josephine, and is now in a private collection at Liege. He was also patronized by the Empress Marie Louise, who took one of his pictures with her to Parma. He died in Paris in 1840, and was buried in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise by the side of his friend Van Spaendonck. The Louvre has also by him three pictures of 'Flowers' and one of 'Fruit.'
Neyts, Gilles
Flemish, 1623-87
John Vanderlyn
1775-1852 John Vanderlyn (October 18, 1775 ?C September 23, 1852) was a American neoclassicist painter, was born at Kingston, New York. He was employed by a print-seller in New York, and was first instructed in art by Archibald Robinson (1765-1835), a Scotsman who was afterwards one of the directors of the American Academy. He went to Philadelphia, where he spent time in the studio of Gilbert Stuart and copied some of Stuart's portraits, including one of Aaron Burr, who placed him under Gilbert Stuart as a pupil. He was a proteg?? of Aaron Burr who in 1796 sent Vanderlyn to Paris, where he studied for five years. He returned to the United States in 1801 and lived in the home of Burr, then the Vice President, where he painted the well-known likeness of Burr and his daughter. In 1802 he painted two views of Niagara Falls, which were engraved and published in London in 1804. He returned to Paris in 1803, also visiting England in 1805, where he painted the Death of Miss McCrea for Joel Barlow. Vanderlyn then went to Rome, where he painted his picture of Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage, which was shown in Paris, and obtained the Napoleon gold medal there. This success caused him to remain in Paris for seven years, during which time he prospered greatly. In 1812 he showed a nude Ariadne (engraved by Durand, and now in the Pennsylvania Academy), which increased his fame. When Aaron Burr fled to Paris, Vanderlyn was for a time his only support. Vanderlyn returned to the United States in 1815, and painted portraits of various eminent men, including Washington (for the U.S. House of Representatives), James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, Governor Joseph C. Yates, Governor George Clinton, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor. He also exhibited panoramas and had a "Rotunda" built in New York City which displayed panoramas of Paris, Athens, Mexico, Versailles (by himself), and some battle-pieces; but neither his portraits nor the panoramas brought him financial success, partly because he worked very slowly. In 1842, through friendly influences, he was commissioned by Congress to paint The Landing of Columbus. Going to Paris, he hired a French artist, who, it is said, did most of the work. It was engraved for the United States five-dollar banknotes. He died in poverty at Kingston, New York, on 23 September 1852. Vanderlyn was the first American to study in France instead of in England, and to acquire accurate draughtsmanship. He was more academic than his fellows; but, though faithfully and capably executed, his work was rather devoid of charm, according to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. His Landing of Columbus has been called (by Appleton's Cyclopedia) "hardly more than respectable." His other works include portraits of Monroe, and Robert R Livingston (New York Historical Society).