The Whisper

April 1844

The death of his wife Pauline from consumption

After marrying Pauline-Virginie Ono in 1841 he moved with her to Paris; after rejections at the Salon of 1843 and Pauline’s death by consumption in April 1844, Millet returned again to Cherbourg.

1845

Meeting Catherine Lemaire and her portrait

In Cherbourg he met Catherine Lemaire, a former maidservant, and painted her portrait in 1845; she later bore him nine children.

mid-1840s

Friends in Paris: Rousseau, Daumier, Sensier

In Paris in the middle 1840s Millet befriended Constant Troyon, Narcisse Diaz, Charles Jacque and Théodore Rousseau, artists later associated with the Barbizon school; Honoré Daumier, whose figure draftsmanship influenced his rendering of peasant subjects; and Alfred Sensier, a government bureaucrat who became a lifelong supporter and eventually his biographer.

27. juli 1846

Daughter born: Marie-Rosalie Millet

1847

First Salon success: “Oedipus Taken Down from the Tree”

In 1847 his first Salon success came with the exhibition of the painting “Oedipus Taken Down from the Tree”.

1848

The government buys “The Winnower”

In 1848 his “Winnower” was bought by the government.