An introduction to: Millet: Life on the Land

Join us in the Supporters' House on your Members' Preview Day of Millet: Life on the Land before anyone else.

Art historian Martin Brown introduces the latest exhibition within the calm surroundings of the Supporters' House Salon, setting the scene of the beauty and quiet power of Jean-François Millet's works.

This introduction is open to all Members and includes a 45-minute talk before you head into the exhibition.

For those booked onto the 9am talk, you will gain access to the exhibition just before opening at 10am, offering you the opportunity to be the first visitors in the exhibition. The talk will then repeat at 2pm.

The sower, the woodcutter, a shepherd girl. These are the subjects that made French artist Jean-Francois Millet famous. 

Marking the 150th anniversary of his death, this is an opportunity to see some of Millet’s best-loved paintings and drawings. 

Born into a farming family in Normandy, Millet moved to the village of Barbizon in 1849 where he put the people who spent their life working on the land, often the poorest of the poor in 19th-century France, at the heart of his work. He knew these people and his realistic, unsentimental approach to painting them was completely new. 

See his iconic 'L’Angelus' (1857‒9) from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, a painting typical of the dignified way he captured the working people of his age. A husband and wife stand with their heads bowed. Lit by an almost ethereal, filtered light, they’ve stopped working in the fields to say the Angelus prayer.  

Admired and copied by Vincent van Gogh, he inspired Impressionists and Post-Impressionist artists including Edgas Degas and Camille Pissarro. His combination of subject and effects of light and tone saw his popularity soar at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. 

Experience the beauty and quiet power of Millet’s work – an artist who created some of the most realist yet timeless paintings of the 19th century.

Martin Brown is a qualified art historian in History of Art and Architecture. As an award-winning Blue Badge Guide experienced in guiding in National Gallery, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, Martin is passionate about the Gallery’s collection. Before retraining as a Blue Badge Guide, Martin worked for 30 years in education. Firstly, as a teacher of French and German in London secondary schools, and for the last 10 years as Head Teacher of a large Secondary School. In addition, Martin has worked as a Secondary School Improvement Adviser for a local authority, for OFSTED as an Inspector and for the Department for Education as a National Leader of Education.