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JEAN FRANÇOIS MILLET
pictures at the same time. The words of an unknown speaker brought the crisis. Walking one day in Paris, Millet paused to look at a reproduction of one of his works in a shop window. He heard a passer-by say to a friend: "That's by Millet, who paints nothing but naked women." To him these words were the cruellest of insults. He went home and said to his wife: "If you choose, I will never do any more of this sort of painting; our life will be harder than ever, and you will have to suffer, but I shall be free and accomplish what has long filled my mind." Without any discussion Madame Millet courageously replied, "I am ready; do what you wish." Thenceforward Millet became Millet the peasant painter.
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