JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
will acquire by practice a fine enough manner of painting."[1] And in another passage: "Colours in painting are as it were allurements to persuade the eye; and the same thing is true of the beauty of the verse in poetry."[2] No doubt it is praiseworthy to say things that are beautiful, but the essential is to say things that are clear and strong. To think rightly and speak one's thought clearly is the ideal of Poussin. It is also that of Millet.
One cannot be too careful to keep in mind Poussin's theories if one wishes to judge Millet. Millet had fed upon them. Very many points of his nature resembled Poussin's. Like him he was a Norman. He had a kindred mind, the same admixture of religion and philosophy, of high thinking with the good sense of a realist. He had also Poussin's rather dull and darkened eye, and his heavy hand. He had long been used to read Poussin's Letters and had assimilated his ideas. They may readily be recognized in his own expressed theories about art. Indeed, he does
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