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 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 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 near poverty. He died at the Barbizon in 1875.