rtrayed in attitudes of performance.

When Millet represents repose it is as an interval of suspended
action, not as the end of completed work. The Shepherdess pauses but
a moment in her walk and will immediately move on again. The man and
woman of the Angelus rest only for the prayer and then resume their
work. The Man with the Hoe snatches but a brief respite from his
labors. The impression of power suggested by his figure, even in
immobility, recalls Michelangelo's Jeremiah.

To the qualities which are reminiscent of Michelangelo Millet adds
another in which he is allied to the Greeks. This is his tendency
towards generalization. It is the typical rather than the individual
which he strives to present. "My dream," he once wrote, "is to
characterize the type." So his figures, like those of Greek sculpture,
reproduce no particular model, but are the general type deduced from
the study of many individuals.

[Footnote 1: In _Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance_.]

II. ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE

Since the death of Millet, in 1875, much that is interesting and
valuable has been written of his life and work. The first biography
of the painter was that by his friend Sensier, in a large illustrated
volume whose contents have been made familiar to English readers by an
abridged translation published in this country simultaneously with
the issue of the French edition. Containing all the essential facts of
Millet's outward life, besides a great number of the artist's letters,
together with his autobiographical reminiscences of childhood,
Sensier's work is the principal source of information, from which all
later writers draw. Yet it is not an altogether fair and satisfactory
presentation of Millet's life. Undue emphasis is laid upon his
struggles with poverty, and the book leaves much to be desired.

Julia Cartwright's recent work, "Jean Francois Millet: His Life and
Letters," is founded on Sensier's life, yet rounds out the study of
the master's character and work with the fuller knowledge with which
family and friends have described his career.

Another recent book called "J.F. Millet and Rustic Art" is by
Henry Naegely (published in England), and is critical rather than
biographical in purport. It is a sympathetic appreciation of Millet's
art and character, and grows out of a careful study of the painter's
works and an intimate connection with the Millet family.

Besides these books devoted exclusively