Sketches after 1863

Jean-François Millet created this sketch with pen and black ink. What immediately strikes us is the stark contrast achieved through the interplay of solid black forms against the bare paper. Observe how Millet uses shadow and outline to define the figures. He uses the visual sign of a tree to support a woman and a man sitting beneath it. It almost feels like a glyph, a character in some ancient and long forgotten language. The composition seems to be a study in symbolism, where figures and natural forms converge to create a visual metaphor. Consider how the artist’s choice of medium and the simplicity of the composition strip away the excess, leaving behind an essence—a meditation on form, representation, and the symbology of nature, which prompts us to decode its underlying structure.