A Young Man Seated, Bent over a Reclining Figure
ca. 1845–50
Medium
Red chalk with stumping on laid paper
Dimensions
sheet: 7 3/8 x 10 3/16 in. (18.8 x 25.9 cm) (trimmed at top to form an arch)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Mrs. Howard Barnet Gift, 2003
Accession Number
2003.185
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-François Millet’s “A Young Man Seated, Bent over a Reclining Figure” dates from around 1845–50, a formative period before the artist fully embraced the rural subjects that would define his career with the Barbizon school. Millet, who would later become a central figure in the Realist movement, here focuses on the quiet interaction between two men, capturing a moment of care or contemplation that hints at the empathetic view of ordinary people he would develop throughout his work. The drawing is executed in red chalk with stumping on laid paper, a medium prized in the nineteenth century f...
About the Artist
Jean-François Millet · 1814–1875
Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school, whose dignified depictions of peasant laborers transformed how art could represent rural life. His monumental images of sowers, gleaners, and field workers elevated common people to subjects previously reserved for mythological or historical figures, making him a pivotal figure in the development ...