Les Premiers pas (c.1859-1866)

Millet, Jean-François (1814-1875)

Les Premiers pas (First Steps)
c.18591866
Black chalk and pastel on wove paper, 29.5 x 45.9 cm
Cleveland Museum of ArtCleveland

At the time this drawing was made, many critics disparaged Millet‘s depictions of peasants as politically radical. In the 1860s Jean-François 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 “enhanced” or “pastelled drawings,” 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. (CMA)

Compare:

Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890)
First Steps, after Millet
1890
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York