Painting

The artist Millet loved to draw as well as to paint. Black and white pictures had their charm for him as truly as those in color. Indeed, he once said that "tone," which is the most important part of color, can be perfectly expressed in black and white. It is therefore not strange that he made many drawings. Some of these, like the Knitting Lesson and the Woman Feeding Hens, were, as we have seen, studies for paintings. The picture called Filling the Water-Bottles was, on the other hand, a charcoal drawing, corresponding to no similar painting. It is in itself a finished work of art.

As we have already seen in the picture of the Woman Feeding Hens, the dooryard in French village homes is so shut in by walls, that it has the privacy of a family living-room. This was the arrangement in Millet's own home at Barbizon. The painter was among the fortunate ones who had a garden beyond the dooryard. At the other end of this was his studio, where he worked many hours of the day. It is said that he used to leave the door open that he might hear the children's voices at their play.

The village-commune of Gréville has nothing to make it famous except that it was the birthplace of the painter Millet. It is at the tip of Cape La Hague, which juts abruptly from the French coast into the English channel. The cape is a steep headland bristling with granite rocks and needles, and very desolate seen from the sea. Inland it is pleasant and fruitful, with apple orchards and green meadows.

It is nightfall, and the sky is cloudy save where the last rays of the setting sun illumine a spot on the horizon. While the light lasts, the Sower still holds to his task of sowing the seed. A large sack of grain is fastened about his body and hangs at his left side, where one end of it is grasped firmly in the left hand lest any of the precious seed be spilled. Into this bag he plunges his right hand from time to time, and draws out a handful of grain which he flings into the furrow as he walks along.

Compiled from Lionel Cust's Anthony Van Dyck, to which the references to pages apply.

1599. Antoon Van Dyck born March 22, in the house "der Berendaus," Antwerp (p. 4).

1601. Removal of Van Dyck family to house number 46 in street De Stat Gent (p. 4).

1607. Death of Van Dyck's mother (p. 4).

1609. Van Dyck among the apprentices of the painter Hendrick van Balen (p. 6).

St. Anthony of Padua was a Franciscan friar of the thirteenth century, celebrated for his piety and eloquence. He was a Portuguese by birth, and early in life determined to be a Christian missionary. His first labors were in Africa, but being seized by a lingering illness, he returned to Europe and landed in Italy. Here he came under the influence of St. Francis of Assisi, who was just establishing a new religious order. The rules were to be very strict: the members could possess nothing of their own, but were to beg their food and raiment of fellow Christians.

Flemish:—

• Franz Snyders, 1579-1657.
• Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640.
• Gaspard de Craeyer, 1582-1669.
• Jacob Jordaens, 1594-1678.
• Justus Sustermans, 1597-1681.
• David Teniers, 1610-1690.

Spanish:—

• Pacheco, 1571-1654.
• Herrera, 1576-1656.
• Zurbaran, 1598-1662.
• Velasquez, 1599-1660.
• Cano, 1601-1676.
• Murillo, 1618-1682.

French:—

In the time of Van Dyck there was living in Antwerp a family of ancient lineage who bore the name of Colyns de Nole. For three centuries there had been sculptors among the men of this name. The talent had been handed down from father to son through the several generations, and sometimes there were two or three of the family working together in the art. The old churches of Antwerp contained some fine specimens of their work.[4]

Writers:—

• Ben Jonson, 1573 or 1574-1637.
• Robert Herrick, 1591-1674.
• George Herbert, 1593-1632.
• Edmund Waller, 1605 or 1606-1687.
• Sir William Killigrew, 1605-1693.
• Sir John Suckling, 1608 or 1609-1641 or 1642.
• John Milton, 1608-1674.
• Thomas Killigrew, 1611-1682.
• John Evelyn, 1620-1706 (author of "Memoirs").

Architect:—

• Inigo Jones, 1572-1653.

Royalists:—

In the distant past which we call the age of fable lived the cunning craftsman Dædalus of Athens. One of his most curious inventions was a labyrinth which he constructed for Minos, the king of Crete. Having at length displeased this king he resolved to flee from the island with his son Icarus. It was impossible to escape by way of the sea without detection, but Dædalus was not discouraged.