DOI Heft:
No. 151 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Halton, Ernest G.: The Staats Forbes collection, 1, The Barbizon pictures
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20713#0062
The Staats Forbes Collection
with the greatest examples of landscape painting.
The freedom of composition and characteristic
directness appeal to us no less strongly than its
breadth and majesty; and we feel that depth of
repose (familiar in the artist’s forest scenes) which
he who is in sympathetic touch with nature alone
can reveal.
A small picture of fine quality, called Sunset,
shows the artist’s wonderful gift of colour. Against
a brilliant sunset of pure gold are clearly defined
some massive trees, their rich brown tints merging
into the foreground.
While Rousseau gave beauty and dignity to the
simple forms of inanimate nature, Millet dignified
and made beautiful the simple forms of human
nature. Born of peasant parents, Millet was yet
a man of culture, a great reader and a profound
thinker. But his sympathies were ever with his
own people. The labourers of the field were his
heroes, and he painted them with all the earnest-
ness of his nature. With the real toilers of the
earth he was at home : the peasant could paint
peasants, for had he not lived their life and learned
in the school of experience what toil meant and
what manner of man it made of the toiler ?
It has often been stated that Millet was of a
melancholy disposition, but this was not so. On
the contrary, he was particularly happy in his
family life, and was devoted to his children. The
continual struggle with poverty naturally depressed
him at times, but he was always hopeful, and we
see his character expressed in his peasants, who,
though always serious, are seldom despondent.
One of the most striking features of the Staats
Forbes collection is the unrivalled series of
drawings and studies by Millet, including the
pastel version of the famous Ange/us, the oil
painting of which is now in the possession of
Monsieur Chauchard, of Paris. In this pastel the
pale tints of the sky are beautifully rendered. The
LANDSCAPE : EVENING BY JULES DUPRE
44
with the greatest examples of landscape painting.
The freedom of composition and characteristic
directness appeal to us no less strongly than its
breadth and majesty; and we feel that depth of
repose (familiar in the artist’s forest scenes) which
he who is in sympathetic touch with nature alone
can reveal.
A small picture of fine quality, called Sunset,
shows the artist’s wonderful gift of colour. Against
a brilliant sunset of pure gold are clearly defined
some massive trees, their rich brown tints merging
into the foreground.
While Rousseau gave beauty and dignity to the
simple forms of inanimate nature, Millet dignified
and made beautiful the simple forms of human
nature. Born of peasant parents, Millet was yet
a man of culture, a great reader and a profound
thinker. But his sympathies were ever with his
own people. The labourers of the field were his
heroes, and he painted them with all the earnest-
ness of his nature. With the real toilers of the
earth he was at home : the peasant could paint
peasants, for had he not lived their life and learned
in the school of experience what toil meant and
what manner of man it made of the toiler ?
It has often been stated that Millet was of a
melancholy disposition, but this was not so. On
the contrary, he was particularly happy in his
family life, and was devoted to his children. The
continual struggle with poverty naturally depressed
him at times, but he was always hopeful, and we
see his character expressed in his peasants, who,
though always serious, are seldom despondent.
One of the most striking features of the Staats
Forbes collection is the unrivalled series of
drawings and studies by Millet, including the
pastel version of the famous Ange/us, the oil
painting of which is now in the possession of
Monsieur Chauchard, of Paris. In this pastel the
pale tints of the sky are beautifully rendered. The
LANDSCAPE : EVENING BY JULES DUPRE
44