JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
eve of becoming a grandfather; and in this last stage of his life when his soul had found calm, he became the painter of children. From 1871 to 1873 appeared a charming series of pictures and drawings into which Millet put a delicacy of feeling and a tenderness that are quite maternal: Evening, The Sick Child, the Little Girl keeping Geese, The First Steps, the Young Mother putting her Child to Sleep. Complete success had come. He saw his pictures, once scorned, now selling for considerable prices[1] (though far short indeed of the amazing figures to which they have attained of late years, in the course of those famous sales in which actual battles of wealth were fought between Europe and America for the possession of them). At last the State remembered Millet and Mr de Chennevières got a commission given to him for eight pictures intended for the decoration of the Pantheon: The Miracle of les Ardents, and The Procession of the Shrine of St Geneviève. For these works Millet was to receive 50,000 francs.
His illness, however, was making rapid pro-
- ↑ The Woman with the Lamp, 38,500 francs. The Flock of Geese, 25,000 francs.
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