Musee Jean-Francois Millet

Historical context

There are two Millet museums in Barbizon, and they tell two different things. The Auberge Ganne tells the story of the group -- the community of painters, their collective life, their exchanges. The Musee Millet tells the story of one man -- his poverty, his tenacity, his way of looking at peasants and fields. In the north-facing studio, under the skylight through which the grey light of Seine-et-Marne filtered, Millet elaborated L'Angelus, Les Glaneuses, Le Semeur. Those paintings are now at the Musee d'Orsay. What remains here is the room itself -- its walls, its floor, its light. Enough to understand where the works came from.

Historical research: grappilles.fr — Barbizon Histoire et Patrimoine