Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection 2019

Jean François Millet french, 1814–1875 Peasant Woman (the Artist’s Wife) Leaning on a Sheaf of Wheat , c. 1850–53 Crayon noir on paper 4 ⅛ by 3 ⅜ inches ( 10 . 5 by 8 . 6 cm) provenance Jill Newhouse Gallery; William Louis-Dreyfus, 2010 . The figure depicted so intimately in this drawing has been identified by Alexandra Murphy in a 2009 letter as Millet’s common-law wife Catherine Lemaire. Although not specifically related to Millet’s major painting of this period Harvesters Resting (Ruth and Boaz) , now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, our drawing was done at that same time, and according to Murphy, represents a spontaneous moment that caught the painter’s eye.