Shop art print and framed art La Becquée, ou Paysanne donnant à manger à ses enfants by Jean-François Millet

The Beakful, in French, La Becquée, or Woman Feeding Her Children is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Jean-François Millet, made in 1860. It is held at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. This canvas was the culmination of a long process, since the first sketches and preparatory drawings are from the years 1848-1849. Some of which are also kept at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille. A painted sketch of Woman Feeding Her Children, made in 1848, is also held at the Ahmed Zabana National Museum, in Oran, Algeria. Acquired in the 1950s, it was stolen in 1985 and found in France in 2001. It was returned to the Algerian authorities in 2014. A mother, squatting on a stool in front of her farmhouse door, gives soup to her three children seated on the threshold, while the father, in the background, digs his garden. In a letter addressed to the art critic Théophile Thoré-Burger, who saw the canvas exhibited in the Martinet Gallery, Millet explained that his painting could be like we imagine a brood of birds to which their mother feeds. The man works to feed these beings there”. Millet sketched his models on the spot, but went back to his studio to paint. The comparison between the preparatory drawings, made long before, and the final painting, reveals a real maturation of the painter's intentions in the composition of the canvas. If the theme itself is immediately present, the construction of the painted scene directs the viewer's towards the father who works the land, at [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the barbizon school styles and realism styles.

 

« La Becquée, ou Paysanne donnant à manger à ses enfants » is kept at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France.

 

Find the full description of La Becquée, ou Paysanne donnant à manger à ses enfants by Jean-François Millet on Wikipedia.