During the summers of 1866, 1867, and 1868, Millet spent several weeks at Vichy, in south-central France, where his wife undertook treatment at the popular spa. Although the stays were short, they were crucially important in Millet's career, for they offered him the opportunity to turn his entire attention to landscape drawing, and provided a new and challenging terrain to master. Exploring the countyside on foot and with a rented carriage, he made dozens of drawings in pencil in small notebooks during the day, then worked them up more carefully with pen and ink or watercolor during the evenings. The present drawing may have been part of a notebook with two drawings identified as Vichy and Cusset (just outside Vichy) in Millet's hand (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) for all three drawings are essentially identical in size. It is important as one of Millet's first efforts to develop a very personal landscape format, with a virtually empty sky and foreground bracketing a densely-worked middleground in which foliage, mountains, and man-made structures are woven together with a sure, even touch.

We are grateful to Alexandra Murphy for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.