{
"data": {
"id": 138515,
"accession_number": "1962.407",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "First Steps, c. 1859\u201366. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet (French, 1814\u20131875). Black chalk and pastel on beige laid paper; sheet: 29.5 x 45.9 cm (11 5/8 x 18 1/16 in.); secondary support: 36 x 50.9 cm (14 3/16 x 20 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Thomas H. Jones, Sr., 1962.407",
"current_location": null,
"title": "First Steps",
"creation_date": "c. 1859\u201366",
"creation_date_earliest": 1854,
"creation_date_latest": 1871,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "black chalk and pastel on beige laid paper",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "beige(1) laid paper, perimeter mounted to beige(1) wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 29.5 x 45.9 cm (11 5/8 x 18 1/16 in.); Secondary Support: 36 x 50.9 cm (14 3/16 x 20 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.295,
"width": 0.459
},
"secondary support": {
"height": 0.36,
"width": 0.509
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed, lower right, in black chalk: J. F. Millet\r\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304258,
"title": "Year in Review (1963)",
"description": "Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964).",
"opening_date": "1963-11-27T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350931,
"title": "Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands",
"description": "Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-01-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304726,
"title": "French Drawings",
"description": "French Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1965-February 16, 1966).",
"opening_date": "1965-11-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 361479,
"title": "Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet",
"description": "Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (January 20-March 7, 1976); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (organizer) (October 17-January 5, 1976).",
"opening_date": "1975-10-17T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 357309,
"title": "Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings",
"description": "Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Early Nineteenth-Century Genre and French Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 31-August 19, 1979).",
"opening_date": "1979-05-31T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304414,
"title": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism",
"description": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1980-02-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310038,
"title": "The Graphic Art of the Barbizon School",
"description": "The Graphic Art of the Barbizon School. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 17-May 17, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-03-17T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311467,
"title": "Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure",
"description": "Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).",
"opening_date": "1991-11-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311635,
"title": "French Drawings from the Collection",
"description": "French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995).",
"opening_date": "1994-12-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 283693,
"title": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Pure Color: Pastels from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 19, 2016-March 19, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-11-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 324628,
"title": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 20-June 11, 2023).",
"opening_date": "2023-01-19T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Emile Gavet [1830-1904], Paris",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Herbert in Paris/London 1975-76 includes in the provenance a work that sold at Drouot, Paris, 30 April 1888, as no. 5, which is incorrect, since this lot is a painting; no other works in the sale correspond to the Cleveland drawing.
"
],
"date": "after 1859 - 1875",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(his sale, H\u00f4tel Drouot, Paris, June 11\u201312, 1875, no. 80, sold to \"Del\")",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1875",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "\"Del\"",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1875-?",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc., New York)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-1962",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Mrs. Thomas H. Jones Sr. [Katharine Brooks Jones, d. 1979], Cleveland, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1962",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1962-",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "At the time this drawing was made, many critics disparaged Millet's depictions of peasants as politically radical.",
"description": "In the 1860s Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet began to add pastel to his black chalk drawings of peasants and rural life, with the hope that the addition of color would make his monochromatic drawings more marketable. Between 1865 and 1869, he worked almost exclusively in pastel, producing more than 100 works. The taste for \u201cenhanced\u201d or \u201cpastelled drawings,\u201d as Millet described them, grew among collectors and artists, and inspired a revival of the medium in the 1870s and 1880s. Here, in a fenced-in garden behind a house, parents encourage their child to walk for the first time. Delicate passages of blue, green, yellow, and red enliven the composition.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80034442"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1962.407-first-steps"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Talbot, William S. \"Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet: Return from the Fields.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 9 (1973): 259-66.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 265; Reproduced: p. 264",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152497"
},
{
"citation": "Millet, Van Gogh. Exh. Cat. Paris: Mus\u00e9e d'Orsay, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 158 n. 33-34",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Hitchcock, Ripley. \"Millet and the Children.\" St. Nicholas 14, no. 3 (January 1887): 166-178.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 168",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Soulli\u00e9, Louis. Peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins de Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet relev\u00e9s dans les catalogues de ventes de 1849 \u00e0 1900. Paris: Librairie sp\u00e9ciale des catalogues de ventes annot\u00e9s, 1900.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 121",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cartwright, Julia. Jean Fran\u00e7ois Millet: His Life and Letters. New York: Macmillan, 1902.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 377",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gensel, Walther. Millet und Rousseau. Bielefelder: Velhagen & Klasing, 1902.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 57",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Rolland, Romain. Millet. London: Duckworth, 1902.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. X; Reproduced: p. 75",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Holme, Charles, ed. Corot and Millet. New York: International Studio, 1903.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: plate M17",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "B\u00e9n\u00e9dite, L\u00e9once. Les dessins de J.F. Millet. Paris: Hachette, 1906.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 24",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Mireur, H. Dictionnaire des ventes d'art faites en France et \u00e0 l'etranger pendant les XVIIIe & XIXe si\u00e8cles. Paris: Vincenti, 1911.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: vol. 5, p. 206",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Diez, E. Jean Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Bielefelder: Velhagen & Klasing, 1912.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 29",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Veth, Jan. \"Une m\u00eame composition chez Joseph Isra\u00ebls et chez Millet.\" L'Art flamand & hollandais 9, no. 17 (1912): 53-60.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 55, 57-60; Reproduced: between pp. 58",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cox, Kenyon. Artist and Public. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 65-66; Reproduced: plate 8",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Moreau-N\u00e9laton, \u00c9tienne. Millet racont\u00e9 par lui-m\u00eame. Paris: Henri Laurens, 1921.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: vol. 2, pp. 38, 59, 192; Reproduced: between pp. 40 and 41; vol. 3, p. 127",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gsell, Paul. Millet. Paris: Rieder, 1928.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 55",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Drawings by Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Exh. Cat. Cardiff: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1956.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 35, under no. 50a",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bouchot-Saupique, Jacqueline. Dessins de Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Exh. Cat. Paris: Mus\u00e9e du Louvre, 1960.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 22, under no. 36",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Some Paintings of the Barbizon School. Exh. Cat. London: Hazlitt Gallery, 1960.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 13, under no. 27",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Chase, Alice Elizabeth. Famous Paintings. New York: Platt & Munk, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 11",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bacou, Roseline. Millet: One Hundred Drawings. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 206, under no. 43",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Herbert, Robert L., Roseline Bacou, and Michel Laclotte. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Exh. Cat. Paris: Grand Palais, 1975.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: no. 97",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Fermigier, Andr\u00e9. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Geneva: Skira, 1977.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 54, 62-63, 143; Reproduced: p. 63",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Catalogue of Important Nineteenth Century European Drawings and Watercolours. London: Sotheby's, 1980.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: under no. 75A",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 62-64; Reproduced: p. 64",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Les plus belles pages de la po\u00e9sie fran\u00e7aise. Paris: S\u00e9lection du Reader's Digest, 1982.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pp. 380-381",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Meixner, Laura L. An International Episode: Millet, Monet and their North American Counterparts. Exh. Cat. Memphis: Dixon Gallery and Gardens, 1982.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 85",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Murphy, Alexandra R. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet. Exh. Cat. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1984.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 115",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Meixner, Laura L. \"Will Hicok Low (1853-1932): His Early Career and Barbizon Experience.\" American Art Journal 17, no. 4 (Autumn 1985): 51-70.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 59; Reproduced: p. 60",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tilborgh, Louis van, Sjraar van Heugten, and Philip Conisbee. Van Gogh & Millet. Exh. Cat. Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 1988.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 111, under no. 39",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lepoittevin, Lucien. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, images et symboles. Cherbourg: Iso\u00e8te, 1990.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 41",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Fermigier, Andr\u00e9. Millet. Geneva: Skira, 1991.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 58, 137; Reproduced: p. 63",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "19th Century Continental Pictures, Watercolours and Drawings. London: Christie's, 1992.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: 25, under no. 17",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kimura, Shigenobu. Urban Utopia. Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 64, 146; Reproduced: p. 64",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "19th Century European Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors and Sculpture. New York: Christie's, 1994.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 70, under no. 91",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Gu\u00e9gan, St\u00e9phane. Millet peintre paysan. Paris: Flammarion, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 78; Reproduced: p. 79",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Murphy, Alexandra R., Richard Rand, Brian T. Allen, et al. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet: Drawn into the Light. Exh. Cat. Williamstown, MA: Clark Art Institute, 1999.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 89, under no. 54",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 134-135, pp. 290-291, no. 53; Reproduced: p. 135",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Manoeuvre, Laurent. Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet, pastels et dessins. Paris: Biblioth\u00e8que de l'Image, 2002.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lemonedes, Heather. \"Pure Color: A new exhibition celebrates luminous pastels.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 6 (November/December 2016): 8-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 8; Mentioned: p. 9",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2016-06"
},
{
"citation": "Milesi, Silvana. Il padre nell'arte e nel tempo. Bergamo : Corponove, 2020, 23.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned: p. 23",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Salsbury, Britany. \u201cNineteenth-Century French Drawings: Acquiring the now-on-view collection.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 63, no. 1 (2023): 8-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 8",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2023-01/page/n7"
},
{
"citation": "Salsbury, Britany. Nineteenth-Century French Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Lewes, UK, Cleveland, Ohio: GILES; Cleveland Museum of Art, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 100-101, no. 11",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1962.407",
"images": {
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"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. Thomas H. Jones, Sr.",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 138515,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1667,
"description": "Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet (French, 1814\u20131875)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Son of a wealthy farmer, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Millet studied with a portrait painter from Cherbourg, Bon du Mouchel (1807-1846), himself a student of David (q.v.). Mouchel required his young apprentice to copy paintings in the museum in Cherbourg, where Millet had been sent to enter the studio of Lucien-Th\u00e9ophile Langlois (1803-1845), a former student of Gros (q.v.). Millet received a stipend from the city to move to Paris in 1837, enrolling in the \u00c9cole des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Delaroche (q.v.), where he met Couture (q.v.). Within two years he had left Delaroche, and his stipend was withdrawn. To earn a living, he executed pastels and small paintings in the style of Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1729) and Fran\u00e7ois Boucher (1703-1770). In 1839 the first painting that Millet sent to the Salon, Saint Anne Instructing the Virgin, was refused. The following year one portrait was accepted at the Salon, and Millet spent the winter in Cherbourg where he could make a living painting portraits. After his marriage to Pauline-Virginie Ono, he returned to Paris, painting various subjects but finding little success. He met Th\u00e9odore Rousseau (q.v.) and Diaz de la Pe\u00f1a (q.v.) and was introduced to Durand-Ruel, who purchased some of his works, at that point mainly pastoral scenes and nudes. In the late 1840s Millet began to devote himself to painting peasants and rural life, subjects that automatically had political overtones in the light of the 1848 revolutions. In 1849 he settled in Barbizon, continuing his depictions of the peasantry. He achieved some financial security thanks to Alfred Sensier, who supplied him with materials and sold his paintings. At the Salon of 1850-51 Millet exhibited The Sower (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), which received a great deal of attention. Although the conservatives accused Millet of overemphasizing the poverty of the peasants, the republican and leftist movement hailed the painting as a dignified representation of the working class. Millet claimed to be interested solely in the biblical allusions of his subject, yet he seemed to persist in painting the poorest peasants at the worst tasks. The final ten years of his life were successful ones. A retrospective of his work at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 solidified his reputation, and the following year he received the Legion of Honor. His work was influential for generations of artists.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1814",
"death_year": "1875",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1963-02-09T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1854,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1859\u201366",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:03:51.171000"
}
}