3-002-554 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Angelus, c1860. This drawing is a later version of Millet's best-known painting (now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris). A young peasant and his companion pause from their work to say the angelus prayer for the dead. Millet spoke of his intention to evoke the "music" of the distant church bells across the Chailly plain. His accomplished use of crayon is evident in the many shades of gray between the white of the horizon and the black of the peasant's hat.