Millet2022

Landscapes 1866–68

Millet and his wife spent one month each summer of 1866-1868 in the town of Vichy where the mineral spas were thought to be helpful to Catherine’s health. During these trips, Millet’s subject matter dramatically turned to the depiction of the uninhabited landscape. These works sometimes included structures, such as houses or mills, instead of the figures of farmers and peasants that were previously the composition’s focus. Millet described these drawings as studies, or sketches; he produced them quickly and often in notebooks, working outdoors and reworking them later in the studio either with brown ink or watercolor. Many became preparatory studies for finished paintings.