Painter Jean-François Millet was born on October 4, 1814, in the Manche department of France. He died on January 20, 1875. He was the eldest of eight children in the small farming village of Gruchy. He began his artistic training at age 19 and moved to Paris at age 22 to study under Paul Delaroche, a master of French art at the time. At age 26, he exhibited a work that was accepted at the Salon for the first time. However, with no scholarships available at the time, he lived a humble life, earning a living by painting nudes. In 1849, fearing the cholera epidemic in Paris, Millet moved to Barbizon. Many artists at the time visited the village in search of its abundant nature, and Millet, inspired by its beautiful natural beauty, produced his first major work, "The Sower." Based on a childhood memory of his father, this painting is said to depict the story of Christ likening God to "the sower of faith." It received generally favorable reviews at the Salon, and became the catalyst for his international recognition.

After moving to Barbizon, Millet produced numerous peasant paintings, and in 1953 he won second prize at the Paris Salon for "Harvesters at Rest." In 1957, he produced what would become his masterpiece, "The Gleaners." He continued to live in Barbizon and paint the lives of the peasants there until his death in 1975.

Meanwhile, in his personal life, he married Pauline-Virginie Ono, the daughter of a seamstress, in 1941, but she died just three years later. In 1946, he had his first child with Catherine Lemaitre, a maid with whom he was living, and he married her in 1953.