The Coast at Gréville by Jean-François Millet is in National Museum Sweden, Stockholm. The size of the work is 60 x 73 cm and is made as an oil on canvas.
Coastal scenes from northern France became increasingly common in the second half of the 19th century. As the region became popular as a resort, the market for this type of images increased. Millet’s coastal seascape is a study for a larger painting. It is not clear whether the lines in the painting are part of a sketch that the artist intended to paint over – or if they were intended to outline the cliffs, as an aid to memory when working on the larger painting. Millet was best known for his paintings of rural life and harsh farm labour. Read more in National Museum Sweden.
About the Artist: French artist Jean-François Millet was born in Gruchy, Gréville-Hague. He was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. In 1833 his father sent him to Cherbourg to study with a portrait painter named Bon Du Mouchel. By 1835 he was studying with Théophile Langlois de Chèvreville, a pupil of Baron Gros, in Cherbourg… Read more
