JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
of simplification sometimes approaches exaggeration, and gives to the movements of some of his figures an automatic character that comes within a hair's breadth of caricature.
But, most frequently, he renders the characteristic essential features of his people as well as of the natural scenery to which they belong, with wonderful success. He imprints the moral physiognomy of beings and things in an indelible way. His vigorous mind, clear and free from complexities, imparts relief and noble expression to the outline, to the drawing that marks the limits of an object or a figure; he suppresses secondary details; he generalises the scheme. By these means he attains effects of epic power. A humble figure, a shed, an abandoned plough in a desert expanse, assume aspects of grandeur; the smallest gesture acquires a large solemnity. A Return to the Farm, by him, will involuntarily evoke the idea of a "Holy Family" or "Flight into Egypt." It would not be surprising to see the cradle of Moses floating on the majestic stream of that calm river over which his Women drawing water are bending. A simple sketch of a Woodcutter bowed double beneath his
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