Shall I?
Date: circa 1900
Dimensions: Height: 61 cm ( 24 in.), Width: 91.5 cm (36 in.)
Medium: Painting – oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard
Owner/Location: Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1900 Image © Art Gallery of New South Wales
Description
he painting is signed and dated l.r., grey paint “F.D. Millet…(date indiscriminate)”.
Correspondence (British and Foreign) BF 24/1902, letter from TL Devitt to George Layton, London, 15 Aug 1902. Discussion about the London Committee purchases (‘“Shall I” by FD Millet [..] are all good examples of the work of men who are rapidly making their way to the front in the world of art, and all these painters certainly come under the category of “rising artists”’). – AGNSW
It is especially interesting to see the painting circa 1908 hanging at the far end, right side, bottom in one of the museum galleries
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/ARC2.1.147
It is interesting to note that the dress, from his extensive costume collection, which Millet painted in “Shall I?” his circa 1900 work, was used 10 years prior in circa 1890. The location of the painting entitled “Michaelmas Dasies” (1890) is currently unknown, however we have a beautifully executed engraving of the painting. The engraving provides sufficient detail to identify the dress as having been used in “Shall I” and provides some clues to the color values Millet used in the missing work. Reuse of various costumes and other props in Millet paintings is often found in his genre works.
Exhibitions / Provenance
Exhibitions:
“The secretary of the London selection committee which was actively purchasing artworks for the Gallery in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, talks in a letter addressed to the Gallery’s director and dated 24 Aug 1900, about an exhibition at the New Gallery in which the painting was exhibited and offered for sale.” -AGNSW
1900, 3rd Summer Exhibition, New Gallery, London, England.
Provenance:
1900, Purchased from the New Gallery, London, England by the Trustees, at a cost of £315. Acc no 6063
AGNSW documentation
Correspondence (British and Foreign) BF 19/1900, letter from AH Greening to George Layton, London, 24 Aug 1910. Purchase of F D Millet “Shall I” from the New Gallery (‘The New Gallery has lately closed and a picture which was thought very highly of by Mr East was offered to my Committee, at a price considerably less than had been asked by the artist, during the time of the Exhibition. It is well painted, and the subject is pleasing. It is called “Shall I” and the artist is Mr F D Millet, whose work is well known as a painter of refined popular subjects of interiors with figures. I am pleased to report that the Selection Committee have secured this picture for the sum of £315, and it will probably be shipped to Sydney by the ‘Ophir’ leaving here on the 14th proximo’).
Correspondence (British and Foreign) BF 21/1900, letter from AH Greening to George Layton, London, 19 Sep 1910. Shipment of Millet picture.
Trustees’ minutes, 1900, p 293 (19 Oct). London letter dated 24th August 1900 advising purchase of Millet “Shall I?” from the New Gallery.
Trustees’ minutes, 1900, p 301 (30 Nov). Pictures received from London including Millet “Shall I” (“were received in good order”).
Correspondence (British and Foreign) BF 7/1901, letter from AH Greening to George Layton, London, 22 Mar 1901. Copyright agreement of picture by FD Millet.
National Art Gallery of New South Wales (report of the trustees for the year 1901), Sydney, 1902, p 2
Research / Publications
Research:
Weinberg, H Barbara. Archives of American Art Journal vol 17, no 1, 1977, pp 2–18
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/francis-davis-millet-and-millet-family-papers-9048
Publications:
Illustrated catalogue: National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney: The Trustees, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1906, p 22, no 58
National Art Gallery of N.S.W. Illustrated catalogue, Sydney: The Trustees, National Art Gallery of New South Wales 1917, p 22, no 54
Free, Renée. Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings, [Sydney]: The Trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wale, [1987], p 130, illus p 130