Shepherd and His Flock

Description

Shepherd and His Flock places a cloaked shepherd at the right of a broad, subdued landscape. His staff strengthens the upright silhouette, while a dog stands nearer the foreground and sheep gather across the middle distance to the left. Haystacks at the far edge and a muted sky give the scene a quiet agricultural setting beyond the immediate group.

This late nineteenth-century pastel is a work after Jean-François Millet, rather than a securely attributed drawing by Millet himself. Made on blue paper, it uses soft, closely related purple-gray and mauve tones to bind the animals, figure, and field into one atmosphere. The image draws its feeling from patient oversight: the shepherd’s stillness provides a steady human counterweight to the clustered movement of the flock.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Jean-François Millet collection.