the faithful partner of his whole life, the unshaken friend who shared his trials with him, and like him, patiently and stoically.
***
Trials were not wanting. When once Millet had gone back to Paris with his wife, he was now without means of leaving it to see his mother again. "I was nailed to a rock," he said, "and condemned to hard labour without end." He painted a Saint Jerome, which was refused by the Salon of 1846. Not having money enough to buy another canvas, he painted Oedipus released from the Tree upon the same. He made visible efforts, at this time, to conquer the hostility of his judges by a scrupulous regard to form, and did not yet give his mind to expressing his personal thought. If these efforts had no success with the general public, they at least attracted the attention of critics like Théophile Gautier and Thoré, and painters like Diaz, Couture and Troyon. It was at this date too that he made the acquaintance of Alfred Sensier,
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