Francis Davis Millet: Classical Costume and Genre
Kamée Payton
March 5, 2022
Arth 3060
Throughout his career, American painter, Francis Davis Millet frequently returned to genre scenes which featured female figures in Classical dress, and in the late 19th century he almost exclusively painted such subjects. The purpose of this paper is to examine several such works by Millet and the factors that contributed to his focus on Classical clothing in these paintings, by looking into his formal and informal Art education, his contemporaries, and his interest in costume design.
After dabbling in painting while attending Harvard University, where he studied languages and history, Millet’s supportive parents sent him to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in May of 1871 to pursue his artistic endeavors. Millet’s formal art education was overseen by the director of the Royal Academy at Antwerp, Nicaise De Keyser, who specialized in painting historical genre, which most certainly influenced Millet’s classical genre scenes. Students started in the beginning class which entailed instruction on drawing and tracing lithographs, then moved to the Antieken and the Natuur classes. While in the Antique class, taught by Polydore Beaufaux, sketching antique sculpture and live models occupied seven hours of a student’s day, while the evening hours were spent listening to lectures on the history of art and history of costumes. These lectures would have been of particular interest to Millet who, from a young age, enjoyed and studied history. The Natuur, or Life class, used costumed models to teach students how to understand and draw drapery. Students were challenged to sketch and paint a live, clothed model within 20 hours, giving Millet and his fellow students the skill of draftsmanship and the ability to quickly capture light and color. This important formal education was the foundation on which Millet built his own mature style.
Though Millet painted murals, landscapes and portraits, he excelled in Genre painting, both while at the academy and throughout his career. The series of paintings which are focused on in this paper, with two exceptions, are Genre, meaning the subject matter does not include any clear narrative. In Millet’s case the lack of narrative allows the viewer to focus on the classical costume and the female figures in these paintings, though beautifully painted, are not the center of attention. A Handmaiden (1886) by Millet exemplifies this (Fig 1). A young woman faces almost completely away from the viewer, the profile of her nose and jawline barely visible. She holds a large pot on her left shoulder furthest from view, her left arm not seen, and it can be assumed that the right hand reaches around and up to steady it, although the viewer only sees the back of the right arm. The focus then is exclusively the drapery. A pastel pink dress made from a gauzy material falls in tiny pleats, while an elaborate floral shawl lined with soft fringe drapes over one shoulder, a thin strophion crisscrosses on her back and a white chiton hangs below her waist. This Classical Genre piece focuses entirely on the exquisite drapery of the young woman. This interest in Genre painting comes as no surprise given the emphasis on the subject at Antwerp and the specialties in Genre of the professors there. De Keyser taught specialty courses on historical Genre composition at the academy and offered, for those interested, extra courses focusing on costume. Connections between the art of Millet and his Professor of the Life class at Antwerp, Josef Van Lerius, can certainly be made. Van Lerius, also a Genre painter, was most famous for paintings of women in historical settings such as his Cinderella, Esmerelda and The Lady of Godiva. Millet’s Prosperina Gathering Flowers (The Poppy Field) (1884), is a painting that falls in line with the type of scene Van Lerius would choose to paint (Fig 2). Prosperina, the daughter of Goddess Ceres, while picking flowers in a field was abducted by Jupiter and taken to the underworld. She was then allowed to return to visit earth once a year in springtime. Millet paints her in the quiet, innocent moment before she is taken. Without the title, the narrative would remain a complete mystery. The image is strikingly similar to Idyll by Van Lerius, in fact, the poses are mirror images of each other (fig 3). The viewer sees the back of Prosperina as she bends to pick a flower with her right hand, while the front of the figure painted by Van Lerius is seen bending in the same pose and reaching downward with the same hand. The stances of the figures mimic each other, the right foot of each young woman is drawn back slightly. The classical plaited hairstyle is almost identical in each image, although Millet adds a thin headscarf to the figure of Prosperina. Though the female figure in Idyll is partially nude, the emphasis on Classical drapery is still apparent. Her cream chiton is secured on her right shoulder but is loose and reveals the side of her breast and her stomach as she bends toward the stream in which she stands. The fabric bunches where, with her left hand she draws the chiton up to keep it from getting wet, and it folds as it falls away from the upper part of her body. Millet’s drapery similarly folds and bunches though the dress of Prosperina is much more elaborate. Millet paints in this work, pleated drapery similar to what is seen in A Handmaiden. The billowing sleeve is loose and falls away from her shoulder and underarm much like the fabric of the young woman in Idyll. Professor Van Lerius, as well as the other professors at Antwerp, had a profound impact on Millet, influencing his work even late in his career.
Equally as important as Millets formal training in Antwerp was his constant travel and lifelong desire to learn that provided education in different ways. Millet traveled constantly, always sketching in a journal wherever he went. In the summer of 1872 Millet and his friends took a trip to London. The group visited many exhibitions and museums and made a stop at the British Museum to see the Elgin Marbles (fig 4). The study of Antique sculpture was of extreme importance at Antwerp, and Millet would have studied a great deal of it by the summer of 1872. The opportunity to examine the drapery of these Hellenistic figures would have surely been of great interest to young Millet, and an important addition to his education. As part of the collection there are three female figures said to be goddesses Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite, who sit and recline against one another, their forms revealed through drapery of “extraordinary richness and variety.” The marble figures are famous for their overwhelming drapery. This Hellenistic “wet” drapery simultaneously clings to the body, exposing the breasts and hips, and falls in cascading pleats. The drapery of the female figures in Millet’s Thesmophoria (1894-1897) (Fig 5) a mural done for the Bank of Pittsburgh, could be related to the drapery of the Elgin Marbles. The procession for the Greek festival of Demeter is made up of women in beautiful white dresses. The choice of all white dresses was uncommon for Millet as he usually chose pastel pinks, yellows and blues, but the uniformity of this bright white gives the sense of white marble. The immense amount of fabric which covers the figures spills onto the ground, too long for anyone to walk in, much like the heaping amounts of drapery donned by the goddesses in the British Museum. Millet paints the pleating and folding of fabric in a very sculptural manner, again connecting it to the goddesses from the Parthenon. In October of 1873 Millet and his friend embarked on a trip which took them to Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Romania and Italy. He fell in love with Italy, painting and studying the works of Renaissance Masters and remained in Italy for over a year, not returning home until 1875. While in Italy Millet discovered Plein-air painting, taking every opportunity to paint out of doors. Being a master of detail Millet was interested in the effects of light and color on drapery. He studied how sunlight illuminated details of fabric, intensifying colors while it completely shadowed and darkened other areas. While Millet was in Italy the Societé Anonyme des Artistes had been formed. This group of artists known as Impressionists were similarly intrigued by the fleeting effects of light and color and while there is no evidence that Millet was in Paris during their exhibition in 1874, he must have been aware of the group because, as one scholar explains, “the influence of the plein-air movement was felt in all the world of art.” His time spent painting en plein air must have impacted the way he painted his classical figures in out of doors settings. Woman with a Lyre (1883-1886) (Fig 6) depicts a young woman sitting on an outdoor exedra playing an instrument. The light shines on her face and bounces off of her pale dress. The hem of the dress is shadowed and becomes a darker shade of blue. The blue shadow is an effect of light plein-air artists clearly understood from spending time studying light and shadow outdoors and is demonstrated by Impressionist artists like Renoir in Study: Torso Effect of Sun, (1875) (Fig 7) and Moulin de la Galette, (1876) (Fig 8). Both of these works by Renoir show the way color changes in the light versus in the shade, and how it effects fabric and skin. While Millet does not apply the same painterly style to Woman with a Lyre that many Impressionists favored, there is a softened quality to the drapery, the pleats of the dress are not as crisp and clear as they are in other works by him, again suggesting that Millet’s time spent painting in nature affected the way he painted drapery and that he was aware of Impressionist techniques. Millet continued to travel throughout his life, never settling for too long in one place. His travels served as another form of art education as they constantly exposed him to new ideas and different artists.
Millet was an eclectic artist. He absorbed everything he saw and learned from his contemporaries and then applied it to his own art in unique ways. Soon after finishing his training at Antwerp Millet became involved with the World’s Fair. He was appointed Secretary to Massachusetts Board of Commissioners for the Vienna Universal Exposition. In her dissertation Gina D’Angelo explains, “The international artistic experience of the Vienna World’s Fair, the sharing of ideas with artists from all over the world, was the first of many such events that Millet would participate in. Like his academic training and his travels, these large international fairs would influence his artistic development” Millet went on to assist in other expositions including the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1878, where he served as a Fine Arts Juror. One artist whose paintings Millet was exposed to through these exhibitions was Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Millet remarked, “I could so easily become an imitator of him so much do I admire his things, and so much do they inspire.” Alma-Tadema also attended the Royal Academy at Antwerp, but his love of Roman and Greek mythology and Archeology started long before his training there. When he was a child, he sketched the stories he read in his mythology classes and traced Roman coins that were occasionally found in farmer’s fields near his home. As a young artist he quickly became well-known and loved for his Classical Genre scenes and his realistic depiction of marble. Millet and Alma-Tadema became friends in 1882. There is no question as to whether or not Millet was influenced by Alma-Tadema, and one can assume the artist friends, who were passionate about the same things, taught and learned from one another often. Alma-Tadema exhibited his Vintage Festival (1871) (Fig 9) in the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and some elements of this painting are seen in Millet’s Thesmophoria. The drapery of Alma-Tadema’s figure could have been another inspiration for the drapery which covers Millet’s figures. The central figure in Thesmophoria holds a staff with her right hand, like Alma-Tadema’s figure who holds a torch. Both figures step forward with their right foot and the drapery moves and folds according to the movement. Millet completed Reading the Story of Oenone (c.1883) (Fig 10) which has similarities to two paintings by Alma-Tadema, A Reading from Homer (1885) (Fig 11) , and The Favourite Poet (1888) (Fig 12), suggesting that Millet also influenced Alma-Tadema, their relationship being one of collaboration. Millet paints four reclining female figures gathered on a sofa. One figure reads the sad tale of Oenone’s betrayal by Paris from a scroll while the others listen, sitting in different poses which cause the drapery to move in dynamic ways. The drapery is clearly the focus of the painting, each dress is incredibly detailed the variety of styles and fabrics shows Millet’s understanding of cloth. The figure on the right reclines against two pillows and looks out toward the viewer. She draws one knee toward her chest while the other knee falls off the sofa and bends back, he toes slightly resting on the ground. The thin pink fabric of her dress has a transparent quality to it, the knees and shape of the legs clearly visible and her sandaled feet peek out from the hem. The figure on the far right wears a simple white dress, the fabric tucked in underneath her bust in an empire style, contrasting with the figure nearest her who models a fabric that is pale green, covered in small blue and deeper green floral. The cloth, that has a silk like quality to it, is loose and gathers at her bosom exposing a bit of her chest, while falling away from her side, as she leans forward to hear the story. A Reading from Homer shows a grouping of four figures, one man in a roman toga reading from a scroll while the others listen. A young woman in a pale gauzy dress, with short sleeves and an empire waist, reclines. Her knees bend underneath the fabric and her sandaled foot pokes out at the bottom. A Favourite Poet depicts two young women in exquisitely detailed classical dress. The figure on bottom sits in a pose similar to one of the women in Millet’s painting. Her right knee is tucked in toward her chest, the other falls down toward the floor. She reads from a scroll which she holds in her right hand and rests on her right knee. The figure above lounges on a cushion, leaning on a large pillow, which is another pose seen in Millet’s painting. The pastel pinks and yellow fabrics seem, in places, to be translucent, exposing the soft flesh tones of the body. The dresses are hemmed and trimmed with gold and embellished with gold details. The sleeves of the figure on bottom are particularly lovely as they puff out at the shoulder and then become slimmer just below the elbow. The pink dress of the top figure tucks in between her calves and hangs off the side of the cushion as if it were simply draped over her as she reclines. The similarities of the colors and textures of the fabrics as well as the poses and movement of the drapery shows the influence and collaboration between the two artists.
Another interest shared by Millet and Alma-Tadema was costume design, a fascination which gave Millet the ability to depict drapery with incredible accuracy and detail. As discussed previously, the history of costume was taught an Antwerp which was most likely the artist’s first exposure to the subject. De Keyser, the director of Antwerp, traveled extensively, collecting material, costumes and accessories from wherever he went in order to study and paint them back in his studio. This is a practice that Millet adopted as he traveled throughout the world. Upset that he could not find a tailor to recreate the dresses, footwear and accessories that he had seen in his travels, Millet decided to design, sew and cobble all his costumes himself. He used the costumes for models when he painted. Additionally, the costumes he created were used for a lecture series that he gave at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Union League Theater in New York. Gina D’Angelo explains, “Millet taught his classes with the use of models which he posed and draped with various Roman, Greek and Etruscan costumes emphasizing the importance of studying classical sculpture in order to understand the function and method of wearing each garment and the relationship of costume to antique matters. He personally designed and supervised the preparation of the costumes all of which were made in his studio” Millet and Alma-Tadema also designed and created costumes for theatrical productions, many of which inspired the designs of women’s fashion at the time. Liberty London created a collection called “a la Tadema” that became popular in England and America. The dresses from the collection came to be known as “Tadema’s Togas”. As the textile industry boomed in the late 19th century, the Greek and Roman inspired Fashion glorified gossamer, chiffon, cashmere and silk fabrics that would fall in soft pleats. Liberty Fabrics, like other manufacturers stressed the “inherent quality of the fabrics to hang beautifully” Ads for Liberty Fabrics depicted women in Roman togas and laurel leaf crowns, celebrating their fabrics for their softness, suppleness, color and gracefulness of draping. In an article on women’s dress from 1882, Mary Humphreys describes that the texture of a dress’s fabric is critical in achieving the beautiful folds seen in “Mr. Millet’s” Roman togas. The combination of different fabrics can be seen in Millet’s An Autumn Idyll (1892) (Fig 13). The figures wear pale Roman stolas. The sunlight highlights the pink dress of the standing figure which, by the way the sun reflects off of it, looks as if it has been made of a silk, plissé fabric. The large number of tiny pleats is certainly the effect that fashion designers were trying to achieve, as discussed in the article by Humphreys. The dress is tied with a thin purple ribbon, accenting the pink fabric. The sitting figure’s Roman inspired dress combines a lightweight white fabric, perhaps a linen blend, and a yellow gossamer fabric at the hem and sleeves which is trimmed in pink. After the Festival (1888) (Fig 14), similarly demonstrates Millet’s understanding of fabric. The pale purple chiffon stola, pleats as it falls from the figure’s waist and arm and a pink, silk chiton drapes over her other arm and wraps around her form. Clearly, Millet demonstrates his understanding of drapery, both from antiquity as well as from contemporary fashion trends.
Millet’s education at Antwerp, his constant desire to learn from his travels as well as from his fellow artists, his knowledge of costume design and his understanding of contemporary fashion trends motivated him to frequently return to painting classical dress. Millet’s desire to portray classical costume purely and accurately set him apart from his contemporaries, such as Alma-Tadema, who were associated with the art for art’s sake trends that caused the classical costume in their paintings to become much more elaborate. Though detailed and beautiful, Millet’s costumes were also consistently rendered with archeological accuracy and purity. This unique talent deserves the attention and scholarship of the art world today.
Bibliography
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Images
Fig.1. Francis Davis Millet, A Handmaiden, 1886
Fig.2. Francis Davis Millet, Prosperina Gathering Flowers (The Poppy Field), 1884
Fig.3. Josef Van Lerius, Idyll, unknown
Fig.4. Elgin Marbles, British Museum
Fig.5. Francis Davis Millet, Thesmophoria, 1894-97
Fig.6. Francis Davis Millet, Woman with a lyre, 1883-1886
Fig.7. Pierre August Renoir, Moulin de la Galette, 1876
Fig.8. Pierre August Renoir, Study: Torso effect of Sun, 1875
Fig.9. Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Vintage Festival, 1871
Fig.10. Francis Davis Millet, Reading the Story of Oenone, Circa 1883
Fig.11. Lawrence Alma-Tadema, A Reading from Homer, 1885
Fig.12. Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Favourite Poet, 1888
Fig.13. Francis Davis Millet, An Autumn Idyll, 1892
Fig.14. Francis Davis Millet, After the Festival, 1888