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The "Millet, Barbizon & Fontainebleu" exhibit will take place at the Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (SOMA) in Olympic Park in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul, beginning January 25. The exhibition will show the world surrounding the hard-working life of 19th century French farmers.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which owns the world's largest collection of Millet's work, has put four years of extensive research and planning into this exhibition, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Millet's birth in 2014.
The upcoming exhibit will showcase a total of 64 works, including Millet's four major paintings: "The Sower," "Potato Planters," "Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz)" and "Young Shepherdess." Visitors can also see the works of other Barbizon School painters who worked alongside Millet at Fontainebleau, including Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Théodore Rousseau. There are also on display paintings by those who were influenced by Millet, such as Jules Dupré and Claude Monet.
'The Sower' grants importance to the man working in the field, portraying a heroic figure with an air of dignity. It is a work influenced by the French Revolution of the late 18th century. Vincent van Gogh was inspired by 'The Sower' and he reproduced the work through six oil paintings under the same name and composition.
Many have seen Biblical references to a type of French holy family in Millet's construction of 'Potato Planters.'
Millet's attempt to depart from tradition and to describe real life in his paintings was something extraordinary at the time. Millet is considered the starting point of Modernism in the arts, as he painted everyday life. Most of all, he expressed the effect of light in his paintings, which is a prelude to Impressionism.
In Barbizon, south of Paris, Millet experienced pure nature and closely examined the life of the farmers. Millet, as well as Corot, Rousseau and Monet, formed the Barbizon School and they represented Naturalism, later contributing to the birth of landscape painting as an independent genre.
In 'Young Shepherdess,' a young peasant girl is about to begin spinning her wool into yarn as she keeps track of her flock.
'Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz)' shows a serene composition of heroic peasants. The double title of this painting refers to Millet's conception of a Biblical scene from the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament.
The exhibition is divided into five sections and visitors can see Millet's masterpieces and the trends of the Barbizon School. The exhibition continues until May 10.
The SOMA can be reached from Exit No. 1 of Mongchon Toseong Station on Line No. 8. For more information, please call 1588-2618 or visit the exhibit's homepage (www.milletseoul.com).
By Limb Jae-un
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos courtesy of © 2014 MFA, Boston
jun2@korea.kr
'Young Woman Churning Butter'(top) and 'Knitting Lesson' depict intimate interior scenes in detail, showing the rustic domestic life.
