Millet2022

7. A Miller Loading a Sack of Flour on to his Horse Meunier chargeant un sac de blé sur son cheval

Black conte crayon and black chalk on paper 8 7 ⁄ 8 x 6 1 ⁄ 2 in. (22.5 x 16.5 cm) Signed lower right

PROVENANCE Collection Alfred Sensier; His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, December 11-12, 1877, no. 220; The Rev. and Mrs Frederick Frotingham, Boston;

Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox Ltd, London; Private collection, North Carolina.

LITERATURE For related drawings, see Musée du Louvre, René Huyghe, and Gabriel Rouchès. Catalogue raisonné: école française de J.F. Millet à Ch. Muller . Paris: Editions des musées nationaux, Palais du Louvre, 1938, no.10719, page 24.

EXHIBITION London, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox Ltd. Nineteenth Century French Drawings . June 15–July 15, 1983, cat. no. 24.

Prior to the success of the painting Harvesters Resting at the 1853 Salon, Millet survived in large part on the sale of his drawings, many of which, like this one, were bought by his patron and biographer, Alfred Sensier. This work is preparatory for a pastel in a private collection which was exhibited in Millet, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, 2017–2018

In correspondence with Alexandra Murphy, she sug- gests that the building depicted here, with the dis- tinctive wall and adjoining stairs, is the barn/grange of Millet’s family home in Gruchy, with the stairs made slightly larger. It is interesting to note that in the pastel, Millet used a Barbizon setting rather than Normandy. Although the figure of the winnower in the background doorway of our drawing reflects back to 1848, our drawing probably dates to 1850–54.

Au moulin , c. 1865, pastel on paper; Private collection