a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers; he can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. After his first painting, a portrait, was accepted at the Salon of 1840, Millet returned to Cherbourg to begin a career as a portrait painter. In 1847 his first Salon success came with the exhibition of a painting Oedipus Taken Down from the Tree, and in 1848 his Winnower was bought by the government.
