Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/624

 594 Painting also name a Sedgy River with cattle grazing, Evening in the Meadows, and a Ferry Boat. Jean Francois Millet (1815 — 1875) was born at Greville, near Cherbourg, the son of peasants who were quite unable to afford to give their son an art education. In early life he displayed so much talent that the authorities of Cherbourg furnished him with the means of going to Paris and entering the studio of Paul Delaroche. But he showed no taste for historic painting, and after a short sojourn with Delaroche, he left that master and sought instruction from nature alone. He married, and settled at Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau, and there, from the fields and woods, and from the peasants, he took the subjects of his works. His first exhibited picture, the Milkivoman, ap- peared at the Salon in 1844; this was followed by the Reapers, Sheep-shearers, Peasant grafting a Tree, and many other similar subjects. His Angelus du Soir and Death and the Wood-cutter are well known from engravings and etchings. His pictures now fetch fabulous prices. Gustave Courbet (1819 — 1877) sent his first picture to the "Salon in 1844. He affected realism, and chose his models from the coarsest types. His landscapes with deer are among his best pictures. He joined the Communists in 1871, was imprisoned for his share in the destruction of the Column Vendome, and when liberated went to live in Switzerland, where he died. Thomas Couture (1815 — 1879), a native of Senlis, was a pupil of Gros and Delaroche. His most famous painting, The Romans in the Decadence of the Empire, appeared in 1847 ; it is at present in the Luxembourg. His works are mostly of an historic character. Jean Louis Hamon (1821 — 1874) was educated for the