Item #P4853 "L'Angelus" Jean-Francois Millet, Gruchy 1814–1875 Bar French.
Jean-Francois Millet (French, Gruchy 1814–1875 Bar

"L'Angelus"

New York & Paris: M. Knoedler & Co., c.1881. Notes: Signed by Charles-Albert Waltner, lower right.
A blind stamp of FD on lower left.
The etching depicts a man and a woman reciting the Angelus, a prayer which commemorates the annunciation made to Mary by the angel Gabriel. They have stopped digging potatoes and all the tools used for this task – the potato fork, the basket, the sacks and the wheelbarrow – are strewn around them. In 1865, Millet said: "The idea for The Angelus came to me because I remembered that my grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed".
Waltner (1846-1925), a Parisian painter-printmaker, based this etching on Millet's same-titled oil, 1857-59, which was first publically exhibited at Brussels in 1874, the year before Millet's death. The image shows the evening prayer of two peasants during the potato harvest in Barbizon, France, with a distant view of the church tower of Chailly-en-Bière. At their feet is a small basket of potatoes and around them are a cart and a pitchfork.

The painting expresses a profound religious devotion, and became one of the most widely reproduced religious images of the 19th century, though Millet painted it from a sense of nostalgia rather than from any strong religious feeling. The work triggered a rush of patriotic fervour when the Louvre tried to buy it in 1889 during a bidding war with collectors in the United States, and was later vandalized in 1932; it is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris., Image Size : 512x627 (mm), 20.16x24.69 (Inches), Platemark Size : , Paper Size : 648x734 (mm), 25.51x28.90 (Inches), Coloring: Black & White, Medium: Etching on thin wove paper (simili-vellum), Categories: Landscapes. Very Good. Item #P4853

Notes: Signed by Charles-Albert Waltner, lower right.
A blind stamp of FD on lower left.
The etching depicts a man and a woman reciting the Angelus, a prayer which commemorates the annunciation made to Mary by the angel Gabriel. They have stopped digging potatoes and all the tools used for this task – the potato fork, the basket, the sacks and the wheelbarrow – are strewn around them. In 1865, Millet said: "The idea for The Angelus came to me because I remembered that my grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed".
Waltner (1846-1925), a Parisian painter-printmaker, based this etching on Millet's same-titled oil, 1857-59, which was first publically exhibited at Brussels in 1874, the year before Millet's death. The image shows the evening prayer of two peasants during the potato harvest in Barbizon, France, with a distant view of the church tower of Chailly-en-Bière. At their feet is a small basket of potatoes and around them are a cart and a pitchfork.

The painting expresses a profound religious devotion, and became one of the most widely reproduced religious images of the 19th century, though Millet painted it from a sense of nostalgia rather than from any strong religious feeling. The work triggered a rush of patriotic fervour when the Louvre tried to buy it in 1889 during a bidding war with collectors in the United States, and was later vandalized in 1932; it is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris., Image Size : 512x627 (mm), 20.16x24.69 (Inches), Platemark Size : , Paper Size : 648x734 (mm), 25.51x28.90 (Inches), Coloring: Black & White, Medium: Etching on thin wove paper (simili-vellum), Categories: Landscapes.

Price: $2,750.00