Brief Biography-Jean-François Millet was known to have influenced the Barbizon school from just doing realistic landscapes to painting figures. He was born into a peasant family near Cherbourg in 1814. A local artist tutored him before he went to Paris in 1832 to study under Paul Delaroche. He first made a living with portraiture, and he exhibited a picture at the Salon in 1837. He moved to Barbizon in 1849, where he became established as a painter of peasant life. His subjects, being imbued with a sad aspect, became too sentimental for the enjoyment of prospective buyers. He painted more landscapes when travelling to Switzerland, and he received a first-class medal at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1867. As his fortunes improved in his later years, his health failed, thus retiring him to a life of near poverty. He died at the Barbizon in 1875.