Landscape - Hillside in Gruchy, Normandy

1869·Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper·30.4 × 36.5 cm (12 × 14 3/8 in.)

<p>Famous as a painter of rural life, in the late 1860s Millet focused on the spa town of Vichy in south central France, where his ailing wife sought a cure in thermal springs. This striking ink drawing may depict Vichy or Millet’s home of Gruchy, Normandy, where he stayed in 1870–71, during the Franco-Prussian War. Here the landscape—with an unusually raised horizon line—dominates rural life.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1869
Medium: Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions: 30.4 × 36.5 cm (12 × 14 3/8 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Jean-François Millet

Artist

Jean-François Millet

Painting

Jean-François Millet was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. Toward the end of his career, he became increasingly interested in painting pure landscapes. He is known best for his oil paintings but is also noted for his pastels, Conté crayon drawings, and etchings.

Gruchy, France

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