.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Ce bûcheron dans la fôret rapidement esquissé rejoint le thème cher à Millet du labeur des paysans. Le fagotier, qui a d’ailleurs fait l’objet d’un repentir dessiné sur une autre feuille puis collé, se confond habilement avec les troncs des arbres et les feuillages. Loin des pastels et des dessins très aboutis, ce croquis fait écho à une autre feuille à la composition bien différente mais qui reprend le même thème, Fagotteuses revenant de la forêt, également réalisée à la pierre noire, au Museum of Fine Art, Boston (inv. no. 76.437 ; Jean-François Millet, cat. exp., Paris, Grand Palais, 1975-1976, no. 172, ill.).
This quick sketch of a woodcutter in a forest fits in Millet’s general interest in peasant life. The fagot-maker, drawn on a separate piece of paper (probably to correct an earlier version) and pasted onto the drawing, is skillfully fused with the tree trunks and foliage. Greatly different from Millet’s pastels and highly finished drawings, this sketch is reminiscent – not in composition, but in theme – of another black chalk drawing, Female fagot-makers coming back from the forest, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 76.437; Jean-François Millet, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1975-1976, no. 172, ill.).
This quick sketch of a woodcutter in a forest fits in Millet’s general interest in peasant life. The fagot-maker, drawn on a separate piece of paper (probably to correct an earlier version) and pasted onto the drawing, is skillfully fused with the tree trunks and foliage. Greatly different from Millet’s pastels and highly finished drawings, this sketch is reminiscent – not in composition, but in theme – of another black chalk drawing, Female fagot-makers coming back from the forest, now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. 76.437; Jean-François Millet, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1975-1976, no. 172, ill.).