Millet2022

5. Woman Drawing Water from a Well Femme étendant son linge

c. 1848–49 Black conte crayon on paper 11 1 ⁄ 4 x 8 1 ⁄ 2 in. (28.8 x 21.9 cm) Signed lower right

EXHIBITIONS Williamstown, Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Jean-Francois Millet: Drawn into the Light . June 20–September 6, 1999. with further dates at The Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Pa. and Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. no. 8, p. 42, illustrated. Few finished drawings by Millet survived the chaos of the 1848 Revolution, and his subsequent move to the town of Barbizon the following year. Ours is one of the earliest known, according to Alexandra Murphy, to realistically depict a figure at work. The bold signature, not usually added by the artist until a work left the studio, indicates that Millet sold this drawing soon after it was executed. Our drawing is most closely related to a painting in the collection of the Princeton Museum of Art. A related drapery study now in the collection of the Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, re- peats the motif of the woman tying up her heavy skirt with the strings of her apron, something which we see portrayed in other works, such as the 1848 Le Repos des Faneurs in the collection of Musée d’Orsay.

ABOVE, LEFT: An Apron , black chalk on paper; Private collection ABOVE, CENTER: Le Repos des Faneurs 1848, oil on canvas; Musée d’Orsay ABOVE, RIGHT: Woman at the Well ; Princeton Museum of Fine Arts