Millet2022

12. The Temptation of Christ Christ Tenté par le diable

c. 1860 Blue crayon on paper

12 x 7 13 ⁄ 16 in. (30.5 x 19.75 cm) Stamped lower right: Lugt 1460

This work is possibly connected to a project for an illustrated Bible that Millet had discussed with fellow artist Diaz de la Peña.

PROVENANCE Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, Vente Veuve Millet (the artist’s widow), April 24–25, 1894, lot 171; sold to Meyer; Paris art market, offered to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1983. Although stamped with the artist’s studio cachet posthumously applied in 1875, this drawing was not sold by the family until the Estate Sale of Madame Veuve Millet, Paris, Hotel Drouot, April 24-25, 1894, lot no. 171, “La Tentation du Christ”. This drawing and approximately a half dozen other compositional sketches of moments in the Life of Christ were drawn by Millet in the early 1860’s, probably in 1863, as part of a project to publish a series of Biblical images as prints or photographs, to which Millet hoped other artists in his circle might contribute. Beyond the uncommon and straightforward Biblical subject, the drawing is also notable for the very stylized figure types of Christ and the Devil, reminiscent of a figure style Millet had explored nearly 20 years earlier.

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