Paintings in the Collection of Henry Clay Frick, 1915 [page 121]

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JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET (1814-1875) LA FEMME À LA LAMPE

BY the flickering light of a primitive lamp suspended from a horizontal bar a young woman, seated, sews on a sheepskin coat. Her costume is that of a peasant of La Hague (Northern France), country of the painter. She wears a white cap on her inclined head, a pink scarf over her shoulders, and a thick woollen dress of faded blue. Near her, to the left of the picture, sleeps a child. On the right, part of a spinning wheel is seen.

Illustrated and described in Vol. I., part 8, of "Masters in Art," where it is stated that this picture was painted in 1872. This painting is also mentioned in Sensier's Life of Millet. Exhibited at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1910.

" There is contentment in every line of the face of this Woman Sewing by Lamplight. It is the face of a happy young wife and mother. She sits close by her baby's bedside that she may listen to his gentle breathing as he sleeps, and she smiles softly to herself while she sews. It is a sweet face which bends over the work, and it is framed in the daintiest of white caps edged with a white ruffle, which is turned back over the hair above the forehead, that it may not shade her eyes. The garment that lies on her lap is of some coarse heavy material. No dainty bit of fancy work is this, but a plain piece of mending. . . . The light gilds the mother's gentle profile with shining radiance; it illumines the fingers of her right hand, and gleams on the coarse garment in her lap, transforming it into a cloth of gold. The baby, meanwhile, lies on the other side of the lamp in the shadow. His little mouth is open, and he is fast asleep. We can almost fancy that the mother croons a lullaby as she sews."-Jean François Millet, by E. M. Hurll.

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