26/4/23 - Acquisition - Cherbourg, Musée Thomas Henry - Although Jean-François Millet was above all a painter of peasants, he tried his hand at the great genre of history during his formative years: having left Cherbourg for Paris, he entered the École des beaux-arts where he studied between 1837 and 1839, more particularly with Paul Delaroche. His friend Alfred Sensier [1] recalls the master’s habit of "preparing his pupils for the Grand Prix de Rome and indicating historical subjects to them so that he could judge their strengths [...] Millet did not pass unnoticed there. When we see by chance some remains saved from destruction, we always find a point, a line".
An oil study bears witness to this training, recently purchased by the Musée Thomas Henry from the Galerie Ambroise Duchemin, associated for the occasion with Élodie Bailliet (ill. 1). The curator Paul Guermond explains that it will be restored later this year before being exhibited.
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- 1. Jean-François Millet (1814-1875)
Joseph Sold by his Brothers, 1837-1839
Oil on canvas - 32 x 40 cm
Cherbourg, Musée Thomas Henry
Photo : Musée Thomas Henry - See the image in its page
The subject of the 1839 Grand Prix de Rome, which was won by Ernest Hébert, was Joseph’s Cup Found in Benjamin’s Bag. It is tempting to see in Millet’s work the staging of this passage from the Bible. In the centre, a man appears to be opening a large bag, while on the right stands a distraught boy. However, the boy is half naked, which is not consistent with the story, even though Hébert also depicts the little Benjamin barely covered by a drape. In addition, Millet has added another completely naked figure, seated in the background on the left, near a hole lined with stones, as well as camels on the right; all elements that do not appear in the story.
The painter therefore more likely depicted an event that preceded that of the cup hidden in a bag: Joseph sold by his brothers. Genesis chapter 37 (verses 20-28) tells us that Joseph went to his brothers who were tending their flock. The brothers, jealous of his position with their father, stripped him of his robe, threw him into a cistern, and then sold him to the Ishmaelites who were driving "camels loaded with spices, balm and myrrh which they were going to deliver to Egypt".
This composition, which seems to illustrate the various episodes of the story, would therefore be an exercise proposed by the master in his studio, rather than a proposal by Millet specifically for the 1839 competition. Delaroche would have submitted an extract from the story of Joseph to his pupils, because it was frequently chosen for the Prix de Rome.
On the other hand, the work that the École des Beaux-Arts recently preempted (see the news item of 21/7/22) and which represents The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist does indeed correspond to an entry by the painter in the 1839 competition, and more precisely to the first stage, as is shown by the date, 18 April, the signature of the teacher in charge of the organisation, Michel Martin Drolling, as well as the number that made it possible to identify the author of the work while preserving his anonymity during the judging.
Let us remember that the competition for the Prix de Rome consisted of three tests: the first, which was obviously eliminatory, was a sketch painted in oil on canvas, the subject of which was taken from history, either biblical or mythological; the second was a nude study, painted in oil after a male model, the pose of which was determined by a professor. The third was divided into two parts: first a sketch drawn, then a large painting whose subject was chosen by a member of the Academy.
Millet failed the competition, lost his scholarship, had to leave the École des Beaux-Arts and returned to Cherbourg where he lived painting portraits.
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- 2. Jean-François Millet (1814-1875)
The Stoning of Saint Stephen, 1837-1839
Oil on canvas - 32.8 x 40.8 cm
Cherbourg, Musée Thomas Henry
Photo : Musée Thomas Henry - See the image in its page
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- 3. Jean-François Millet (1814-1875)
Prometheus, c. 1839
Oil on canvas - 32.8 x 40.8 cm
Cherbourg, Musée Thomas Henry
Photo : Musée Thomas Henry - See the image in its page
This study of Joseph sold by his brothers joins in the collections of the Thomas Henry Museum two other sketches by the artist, of identical dimensions, The Stoning of Saint Stephen and Prometheus, also considered as exercises dictated by Paul Delaroche (ill. 2 to 4). All three compositions have the same chromatic range, the same golden light, the same treatment of the figures, and the same simplification of the forms framed in black. The landscapes and skies are also similar.
Prométhée is clearly mentioned by Sensier in his biography of Millet [2]: "Delaroche once proposed to his pupils as a competition composition: Prométhée sur son rocher. A pupil asked Millet how he understood this subject. "I can’t tell you that well," he replied, "but I would like to paint him in such a way that his torment would seem eternal!" And indeed he imagined Prometheus crushed by Jupiter’s thunderbolt, one leg dangling over the abyss and uttering a terrible cry of pain and anathema against the force that had overcome him".
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- 4. The three works in the museum
Photo : Ambroise Duchemin - See the image in its page
The Musée de Cherbourg, renovated in 2016 (see article), holds an important collection of works by Jean-François Millet dating mainly from the early years of 1835-1845, and more particularly portraits of families and inhabitants of the region. Most of them come from the 1915 bequest of Paul Ono-Dit-Biot, a descendant of Pauline Ono, the painter’s first wife, who died of tuberculosis and of whom he painted some moving portraits that are kept in the museum. They were loaned for the exhibition that the Lille museum devoted to the painter in 2017 (see article); one section was entitled "Biblical?", and showed that although history scenes are rare in Millet’s work, he nevertheless introduced the sacred into everyday life, giving peasant women accompanied by their children the air of the Virgin Mary.