JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
is grave, the figures whom he choses and the actions which he assigns to them. There is no love; there are few or no anecdotes; he rarely paints young men; and the women whom he represents are all at work; they are sewing, turning hay, shearing sheep, carrying pails or fulfilling motherly duties, feeding and teaching children. The highest poetry and the only joy of his work lies in family affection. There is no room here for useless beauty. Millet said of Jules Breton's country girl: "They are too pretty to stay in the village." On every man and every woman he imposes the necessity of work. "My programme is work."
And, undoubtedly, it would be an exaggeration to say that this work is always sad. There are moments of calm, and of gentle content, the effect of which is perhaps the more agreeable for not being habitual. Then comes the deep comfort of hours of rest and silence.[1]
- ↑ Millet had met with an expression in Milton which had struck him greatly as according with his own feeling: "Silence listens." (It is curious to add that this expression is not Milton's but that of
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