This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...Millet returned to his old home, to a life of some comfort and of prosperity; illness only came between him and a life of perfect ease. He had mastered his art; he had mastered the critics; he had mastered the public. " Durand Ruel," he wrote to Sensier, " has asked me to send him as many pictures as possible, canvases of all sizes." We even hear of an assistant from Durand Ruel's coming to Barbizon to assist Millet in unpacking his Greville pictures. Millet himself, with his simple mind, must have indeed marvelled over the change in his circumstances; must have looked back with wonder at the time when the very pictures which were now being sold and re-sold at ever higher prices were worth but little more thasn the very canvases they were painted on. Several very advantageous offers were again placed before him by dealers who wished to obtain a monopoly of the sale of his pictures, but Millet refused to listen to their blandishments. He had not forgotten his affair with Messrs. Stevens and Blanc; he had also a number of commissions unfulfilled--from M. Hartmann, for instance; all the landscapes he had begun for him were still undeveloped, even the "Spring," although several seasons had passed since it was first placed on the canvas, was far from finished. Nor could Millet at any time have been a person well suited to form a contract with a dealer, who is bound to look upon a picture more or less as merchandise, who must sell his wares when the opportunity for doing so offers itself, and cannot often afford to wait during that long process of incubation to which an artist of imagination is often obliged to submit his ideas. Millet preferred to have on hand a dozen or more pictures at the same time. Sometimes he allowed a canvas to remain...

Excerpt from Jean-Francois Millet and the Barbizon School Ince writing the study of jean-frangois Millet included in this book, it has been my good fortune to have verified my own convictions that the sorrows of the peasant-ipainter's life have been, by certain writers, very much exaggerated. While in conversation with a well-known collector and possessor of many beautiful pictures by Millet, I mentioned that the creator of a certain drawing, at which we were looking, could never have been as unhappy a man as Millet was generally represented to be. The answer that I received was, No, he was not always unhappy. Many a time have I talked at length with Madame Millet about her husband, and she assured me that at Barbizon Millet was far from unhappy: there he had everything that he wanted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.