2069 FRANCE (Île-de-France) - Millet at Barbizon

2069 Millet at Barbizon: 1. The field and the village of Chailly-en-Bière
which served as decor for "The Gleaners" and "The Angelus";
2. "The Angelus"; 3. Millet; 4. "The Gleaners"; 5. The dining
room of Millet; 6. Millet's home.

The Barbizon school was part of an art movement towards Realism in painting, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time, on the middle of the 19th century, roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its name from the village of Barbizon, near the Forest of Fontainebleau, where many of the artists gathered. Some of the most prominent features of this school are its tonal qualities, color, loose brushwork, and softness of form.

The founders of this school were Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Théodore Rousseau, Jean-François Millet, and Charles-François Daubigny, whom have joined many others. Influenced by Dutch and English landscapers, they made nature the subject of their paintings, largely abandoning classical style. Millet (1814-1875), as also Rousseau (1812-1867), settled at Barbizon, where lived until the end of their lifes.

Millet extended the idea from landscape to figures - peasant figures, scenes of peasant life, and work in the fields. In The Gleaners (1857), for example, he portrays three peasant women working at the harvest. Millet shifted the focus and the subject matter from the rich and prominent to those at the bottom of the social ladders. To emphasize their anonymity and marginalized position, he hid their faces.

About the stamps

The stamps are a joint mission France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Italy and Uruguay, Football World Championship, issued on April 30, 2002.

References
Barbizon school - Wikipedia
Jean-François Millet - Wikipedia

Sender: L. Fiffafoux
Sent from Barbizon (Île-de-France / France), on 03.10.2015