2-728-765 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

First Steps, c. 1858-1866. In the 1860s Millet developed the practice of adding pastel to his black chalk drawings of peasants and rural life, with the hope that the addition of colour would make his monochromatic drawings more marketable. Between 1865 and 1869, he worked almost exclusively in pastel, producing more than 100 works. The taste for "enhanced" or "pastelled drawings," as Millet described them, grew among collectors and artists, and inspired a revival of the medium in the 1870s and 1880s. Here, in a fenced-in garden behind a house, parents encourage their child to walk for the first time. Delicate passages of blue, green, yellow, and red enliven the composition.