The works of Millet from the Musée d'Orsay

ean-François Millet (1814-1875) is unquestionably one of the greatest painters of the 19th century. His two most famous paintings, The Angelus and The Gleaners, are iconic works in western art, and are continually reinvented in art, advertising and film.
As the rooms where these works are displayed are undergoing renovation, the opportunity has arisen, for the first time, to organise an extra-mural exhibition of the Millet collection from the Musée d'Orsay.

The works of Millet from the Musée d'Orsay are special in that they represent all facets of the painter's career. They include his first portraits produced after his studies at Cherbourg, his work at Barbizon, his talented landscapes and, of course, his representations on the theme of peasants, one of the painter's main preoccupations.

Thus the exhibition has been designed as a full tribute to Millet, "one of the artists who sought the expression of life most profoundly, and who gave a voice not only to human subjects but to things as well", according to Jules Breton. It is the opportunity to present exceptional works of art, which are part of the French national imagination, and which offer an insight into a page of French civilisation.