Two women working hay

Details

JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET (GRUCHY 1814-1875 BARBIZON)
Two women working hay
signed with monogram ‘J. F. M.’ (lower left)
black chalk, black chalk framing lines
5 5/8 x 8 3/8 in. (14.2 x 21.3 cm.)

Provenance

Alfred Sensier (1815-1877), Paris; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11-12 December 1877, lot 236.
James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), London.
Anthony Eden, The Earl of Avon (1897-1977).

Literature

J. Cartwright, ‘The Drawings of Jean-François Millet in the collection of the late Mr. James Staats Forbes. Part II’, The Burlington Magazine, V, 1904, no. 14, p. 119, ill.

Exhibited

London, The Leicester Galleries, Catalogue of an exhibition of the Staats Forbes collection of 100 drawings by Jean-François Millet, 1906, no. 58.
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Lord Avon, 11 January – 20 March 1966, no. 13.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Benedict Winter Associate Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

This sheet belongs to a group of twenty drawings owned by Millet’s friend and patron Alfred Sensier. The group was sold after his death in a dedicated section called ‘L’Epopée des champs’, a series Millet never completed, that would have formed a complete record of agricultural work over the course of the year. Many of Sensier’s drawings were acquired by the British collector James Staats Forbes, who had a particular interest in the Barbizon School.

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