Currently not on view
Study for The Goose Girl Bathing,
1850–1862
Jean-François Millet, 1814–1875; born Gruchy, France; died Barbizon, France
x1985-51
The development of preparatory studies for finished paintings was an essential part of Millet’s working process, as demonstrated by the drawing The Large Woodcutters, which relates to a canvas in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The vigorous back and forth movements of the sawyers are echoed by Millet’s circular, energetic black chalk strokes. Millet’s drawing Goose Girl Bathing is a study for a canvas in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Idyllic yet naturalistic, the awkward, angular form of the adolescent girl—a far cry from the idealized Salon nudes of the day— perfectly captures Millet’s approach to the figure.
Information
Title
Study for The Goose Girl Bathing
Dates
1850–1862
Maker
Medium
Charcoal with white chalk highlights
Dimensions
34.4 x 42.1 cm (13 9/16 x 16 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of A. Richard Turner, Class of 1955 and Graduate School Class of 1959, and Mrs.Turner
Object Number
x1985-51
Signatures
Artist's stamp, lower left: J.F.M. [Lugt 1460}
Culture
Materials
Artist's estate;
May 5-7, 1908, Chéramy sale, Paris, no. 394.
October 17, 1940, Jerome Stonborough sale, Parke-Bernet, no. 31;
1940, Purchased by Frank Jewett Mather, Jr.;
Inherited by his grandson, A. Richard Turner;
Gifted to the Princeton University Art Museum
- Catalogue des tableaux anciens et modernes; aquarelles, pastels, dessins: oeuvres remarquables de Boltraffio [et al] Très importante collection d'oeuvres de Constable et d'Eugène Delacroix, primitifs italiens composant la collection P.-A. Cheramy...Galerie Georges Petit, les 5, 6, et 7 mai 1908, (Paris: Galerie Georges Petit, 1908)., no. 394 (illus.)
- Important works by celebrated modern French painters ...: collected in Paris by the late Jerome Stonborough ... public sale ... Thursday, October 17 ..., (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, 1940)., no. 31 (illus.)
- Jean-Francois Millet, (Paris: Grand Palais?, 1976)., under entry for no. 106
- Princeton alumni collections: works on paper, (Princeton, NJ: Published by the Art Museum, Princeton University, in association with Princeton University Press, 1981)., p. 86 (illus.)
- Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 29 (illus.)
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1985," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 45, no. 1 (1986): p.16–42, p. 31
- Jean-François Millet, (Tokyo: Nippon Television Network Corporation, 1991)., p. 167, no. 92 (illus.)
