Quintero, Michelle: “Role of Women in Society” The Window Seat, and Broadway Milkmaid 

 

“Role of Women in Society” The Window Seat

Francis Davis Millet’s painting of The Window Seat shows a woman sitting on a window bench crocheting. Her physical position shows her being focused on her task, having no distractions around her. Behind the women are many windows that give a glimpse as to what is outside. What appears to be the outside is filled with greenery and many trees along with a lot of light. The light is painted in a way to show that it is filling the room in which the women is in, making it able for the viewer to see what else is included. There are few objects that are shown in the painting for example the chair in which she has her feet on, the table with the vase of flowers and the books, but this is all part of the scene that is being portrayed.

Millet had a strong interest in painting scenes that were before his time. He also enjoyed dressing his models in the genre that he was recreating. One of the genres styles that he like to paint, was domestic scenes. The Dutch were known for creating scenes that were very simple and focused on domestic life. The Window Seat is as perfect examples of how Millet incorporated seventeenth century domestic Dutch scenes into his career. Millet started out by painting other images of women doing needle work, for example his painting of the Old Flemish Woman Threading a Needle, c. 1872. Here he is starting out this idea of simple daily tasks. He continued to paint different scenes of domestic life and tasks, and they often included women. It was common for Dutch paintings to include women in them, as they were the ones that were at home all day and doing the homemaking as well as teaching the children. These types of tasks were a very typical role for women in society, during the seventeenth century leading up to the nineteenth century. Millet portrayed these scenes in a very delightful way, but they were most popular in England. The people of England found it very skillful and was very delicate with his painting of light.

When Millet first though of the idea of painting The Window Seat when he was in London, England at the White Lion Inn in the Oxfordshire village of Bidford-on-Avon. At the time he was with Edwin Austin Abbey. When at the White Lion Inn, he saw a window seat and saw that as inspiration to create the painting. He began working on the painting while in London as he also continued to search for a home in one of the villages nearby. Millet was very interested in having a second home in England due to the positive feedback that he had been receiving from his seventeenth century domestic Dutch genre paintings. Millet used his wife Elizabeth Merrill as the focus and model of the painting. He shows the simplicity of the Dutch style by having his wife crocheting while sitting on the window seat, having the room be more of a box like structure and with windows giving a view of the green exterior and filling the room with light. Millet use these techniques to show a message of peaceful, home centered, simple style of life.

Literature:

D’Angelo, Gina M. “Francis Davis Millet – The Early Years Of ‘A Cosmopolitan Yankee,’ 1846-1884.” Dissertation, The City University of New York, 2004. Accessed April 20, 2021

Janson, Jonathan. “The Subject Matter of Dutch Domestic Interiors,” 2003. http://www.essentialvermeer.com/dutch-painters/dutch_art/subject_matter.html.

Simpson, Marc. “Windows on the Past: Edwin Austin Abbey and Francis Davis Millet in England.” American Art Journal 22, no. 3 (1990): 65-89. Accessed April 20, 2021. doi:10.2307/1594566.

Westermann, Mariët. “Svetlana Alpers’s ‘The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century’, 1983.” The Burlington Magazine 153, no. 1301 (2011): 532-36. Accessed April 21, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23055389.

“Role of Women in Society” Broadway Milkmaid

Francis Davis Millet painting of the Broadway Milkmaid portrays a woman a field. The woman is identified to be a milkmaid due to the silver bucket that is in one hand and the small wooden stool in the other. The woman stands tall and is in the center of the painting. She is wearing clothing that is most associated to milkmaids, or kitchen maids. She is surrounded by greenery that looks to be different types of weeds. Behind her you can see the light beginning to appear as if it is rising.

Millet was very fascinated by domestic paintings, especially in the seventeenth century Dutch genre paintings. Here he captures a woman portraying the typical milkmaid in Broadway which is in England. He was known to often find inspiration in England for new domestic paintings. The woman stands tall showing confidence and strength. Being a milkmaid was hard work and it was often known that the maids were of rounder, stockier and stronger in appearance. Although this painting does not show a woman of very round appearance her posture shows the strength that is needed to be a maid.

Some artists for example Vermeer, portray the milkmaids in a way to show their strength, charity and other virtues and relate them to allegorical or biblical characters. Millets rendering of the Broadway Milkmaid can be accredited to having these characteristics of strength and charity based on her posture and the light shining from behind. Milkmaids would often make cheeses out of the milk they had received or even use it to make other products and go around selling them to the people in the village or even give them away to gentlemen who began to lust over them.

Another common interpretation of milkmaids is viewed very differently than biblical or allegorical characters. In Dutch genre paintings it is also viewed that milkmaid paintings had sexual symbolism and representation. A milkmaid as well as ploughmen were first shown to represent the working class, but with time they acquired rural sexual connotations. The milkmaid was known to reflect natural feminine beauty and attract men. These connotations came about due the character of a milkmaid. Milkmaids began to be seen as more relatable and approachable. The appearance of a milkmaid is peasantry, but her beauty could be seen as courtly, and due to this it attracted many gentlemen. The idea of milkmaids became very appealing, and many men lusted after them. Although there is not much information on Millets painting of a milkmaid, a variety of interpretations can be made based on Dutch genre milkmaid paintings. Whether allegorical, biblical, or sexual, a milkmaid has a great influence on others.

Literature:

D’Angelo, Gina M. “Francis Davis Millet – The Early Years Of ‘A Cosmopolitan Yankee,’ 1846-1884.” Dissertation, The City University of New York, 2004. Accessed April 20, 2021

Ganev, Robin. 2007. “Milkmaids, Ploughmen, and Sex in Eighteenth-Century Britain.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 16 (1) (01): 40-67,150. https://ezproxy.uvu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/scholarly-journals/milkmaids-ploughmen-sex-eighteenth-century/docview/222687551/se-2?accountid=14779.

Liedtke, Walter A., and Walter A. Liedtke. “Aspects of The Composition/ Subject and Content.” Essay. In The Milkmaid, 5–15. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum Of Art, 2009. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Y3l00SweevIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA5&dq=%22milkmaid%22+&ots=UUL2sIpkuy&sig=JyBTosLNylGHjkPBbZugLFqtK8k#v=onepage&q=%22milkmaid%22&f=false.