Jean-François Millet La Fin de la Journée (The End of the Workday), c. 1858 Charcoal and pastel on paper, 275 x 381 mm (with mount: 390 x 468 mm) on recto, lower right, signed: J. F. Millet on matting, lower centre, printed: J. F. Millet on verso, inscribed in pencil, upper right: 4 ; lower left: 075_14, 37bis on mount, verso, at centre, inscribed in pen: 36 37bis 37bis ; inside matting, 37 bis Provenance: Possibly with the estate of the artist ( ) By latest February 1938: Léonie Gillet, Paris (per Brame & Lorenceau) ( ) By latest 28 April 1944: with Raphaël Gerard, Paris (per Gurlitt Papers) After September 1953: Hildebrand Gurlitt, Dusseldorf (per Gurlitt Papers) By descent to Cornelius Gurlitt, Munich/Salzburg From 6 May 2014: Estate of Cornelius Gurlitt
Exhibition: J. F. Millet: Dessinateur: Exposition de quelques œuvres, Galerie Hector Brame, Paris, 31 January 19 February 1938. [no. 9] Werke der Französischen Malerei und Grafik des 19. Jahrhunderts. Exh. cat., Villa Hügel, Museum Folkwang, Essen, 25 July 6 November 1954. [no. 67] Bibliographical references: Gensel, Walther. Millet und Rousseau. Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1902. [related to p. 29, fig. 20] Staley, Edgcumbe. Jean François Millet. London: Bell & Sons, 1905. [related to p. 66] Moreau-Nélaton, Étienne. Millet: Raconté par lui-même. Paris: Henri Laurens, 1921. [vol. 2, fig. 113] Primary sources: Hildebrand Gurlitt and Cornelius Gurlitt Papers: Gerard Files: BArch, N 1826/46, fol. 1 ff. List Raphaël Gerard, 28 April 1944, item no. 37b Ibid., fol. 5 ff. List of artworks with Raphaël Gerard, [c. September 1953], item no. 37b Miscellaneous: BArch, N 1826/185. Hildebrand Gurlitt travel itinerary, 1941 1945 Photographs: BArch, N 1826 Bild-0814 [=7.1_F741], [8 June 1944] Register of Salzburg works, 2014, no. Wien 075_14 Galerie Brame & Lorenceau, Paris (Archives): Millet Exhibition 1938, lender: Madame Gillet, rue Barbet de Jouy Musée du Louvre, Paris: Documentation, Fonds Étienne Moreau-Nélaton Further sources consulted: Catalogue de la vente qui aura lieu par suite du décès de Jean-François Millet. Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 11 May 1875. Sensier, Alfred. La vie et l œuvre de Jean-François Millet. Paris: Quantin, 1881. Sensier, Alfred. Jean-François Millet: Peasant and Painter. London: Macmillan and Co., 1881. Yriarte, Charles. J. F. Millet. Paris: Jules Rouam, 1885. Cartwright, Julia. Jean-François Millet: His Life and Letters. London: Swan Sonnenschein and New York: The Macmillan Company, 1896. Millet-Mappe. Munich: Kunstwart, 1900. Gensel, Walther. Millet und Rousseau. Vol. 57 of Künstlermonographien. Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1902. Marcel, Henry. J.-F. Millet: Biographie critique. Paris: Henri Laurens, 1903. Muther, Richard. J. F. Millet. Berlin: Bard, 1903. Peacock, Netta. Millet. London: Methuen, 1905. Staley, Edgcumbe. Jean François Millet. London: Bell & Sons, 1905. Krügel, Gerhard. Jean François Millet: Eine Kunstgabe. Mainz: Scholz, 1909. Turner, Percy Moore. Millet. London: Jack, 1910. Hoeber, Arthur. The Barbizon Painters. New York: The mentor association, 1914.
Collection Roger Marx. Auct. cat., Galerie Manzi-Joyant, Paris, 11 12 May 1914. Hoeber, Arthur. The Barbizon Painters. New York: Books for Libraries, 1915. Graphik und Handzeichnungen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts (= Auktion 72). Auct. cat., Paul Graupe, Berlin, 5 7 May 1927. Gsell, Paul. Millet. Paris: Rieder, 1928. Antiquitäten, Gemälde, modernes Mobiliar (= Katalog 2094). Auct. cat., Rudolph Lepke's Kunst- Auctions-Haus, Berlin, 1 2 November 1935. Moderne Graphik der Sammlung Heinrich Stinnes. Auct. cat., Gutekunst & Klipstein, Berne, 20 22 June 1938. Tableaux, Pastels, Aquarelles, Dessins: Estampes modernes: Livres sur la Gravure. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 17 June 1942. Tableaux et dessins modernes. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20 November 1942. Catalogue des dessins, aquarelles, gouaches, pastels ( ) composant la collection de M. Georges Viau. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 11 December 1942. Tableaux: Pastels, Aquarelles, Dessins (XIX e et XX e Siècles). Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21 December 1942. 28 January 1943. Tableaux modernes: Aquarelles, Pastels, Dessins. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4 March 1943. 2 June 1943. Tableaux modernes: Aquarelles, Dessins, Gouaches, Sculptures. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 November 1943. 21 January Catalogue des Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Pastels. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20 March Tableaux modernes, dessins, aquarelles, gouaches, pastels. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 March Objets de bel ameublement: Tableaux et dessins modernes ( ). Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 31 March Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Pastels: Tableaux modernes. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 24 May Catalogue des Dessins, Aquarelles, Gouaches, Pastels: Tableaux modernes. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 4 June Estampes anciennes et modernes: Tableaux, Pastels, Aquarelles: Dessins anciens et modernes. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 20 December Dessins: Tableaux modernes: Sièges et Meubles. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 25 May 1945. Estampes, Tableaux: Pastels, Aquarelles, Dessins modernes. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 29 June 1945. 8 November 1945. Estampes, Tableaux: Aquarelles, Dessins, Miniatures. Auct. cat., Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 13 December 1945. Dessins de Jean-François Millet. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1960. Hiepe, Richard. François Millet. Leipzig: Seemann, 1962. J.-F. Millet. Exh. cat., Wildenstein & Co., London, 5 November 5 December 1969.
Mégret, Frédéric. Millet: l'apôtre des paysans. In: Connaissance des Arts 251, Paris, 1973. Bacou, Roseline. Millet: One hundred drawings. London: Harper & Row, 1975. Herbert, Robert L., ed. Jean-François Millet. Exh. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, 1975. Jean François Millet. Exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London, 22 January 7 March 1976. 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture: 5th Anniversary 1972 77. Exh. cat., Achim Moeller Gallery, London, 1977. Fermigier, André. Jean-François Millet. Geneva: Skira 1979. Murphy, Alexandra. Jean-François Millet. Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1984. Laughton, Bruce. The Drawings of Daumier and Millet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. 19th Century European Paintings, Drawings, Watercolors. Auct. cat., Christie s, New York, 15 February 1995. Manœuvre, Laurent. Millet: Les Saisons. Paris: Herscher, 1996. Millet: Van Gogh. Exh. cat., Musée d'orsay, Paris, 14 September 1998 3 January 1999. Murphy, Alexandra R. Drawn into the Light: Jean-François Millet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. Millet: Sessanta Capolavori dal Museum of Fine Arts di Boston. Exh. cat., Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia, 22 October 2005 19 March 2006. Old Masters and 19th Century Drawings. Auct. cat., Christie s, New York, 24 January 2008. Meyer, Andrea. Zwischen Original und (Ver-)Fälschung: Werke von Jean-François Millet in deutschem Privatbesitz. In: Geschmacksgeschichte(n): Öffentliches und privates Kunstsammeln in Deutschland 1871 1933, ed. Ulrike Wolff-Thomsen and Sven Kuhrau. Kiel: Ludwig, 2011. Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg: Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume Database Central Collecting Point München Database Kunstsammlung Hermann Göring Getty Provenance Index, German Sales Catalogs Lootedart.com Lost Art Répertoire des Biens Spoliés Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague Verzeichnis national wertvoller Kunstwerke ( Reichsliste von 1938 ) Witt Library, London Note: Millet executed several variants of same subject, depicting a solitary figure in striking pose, struggling into his coat sleeve at the end of a long workday. This motif is sometimes alternatively titled Le Soir and L homme remettant sa veste. Examples include both works on paper and oils; one such painting, titled Le Fin de la Journée, formerly in the collection of Henri Rouart. The 1921 monograph by Étienne Moreau-Nélaton, in which this work is reproduced, contains no reference to its ownership. The period photographic print has been preserved in the author s papers, now at the Louvre, it is credited to Adolphe Braun, the pioneering photographer who reproduced Millet s work on a large scale in the 1870s. Along with another drawing by Millet (Lost Art ID 478391) this work was exhibited in February 1938 at the Galerie Hector Brame in Paris. Léonie Gillet (1884 1965), wife of textile industrialist Edmond Gillet (1873 1931), with residence at rue Barbet de Jouy, was the lender to said exhibition.
This work was one of over 70 works with the art dealer Raphaël Gerard in Paris in It is unclear whether at the time Gerard and/or Gurlitt owned or co-owned these works, whether they had been placed on commission, or indeed simply deposited with Gerard. It is conspicuous that an inventory of works with Gerard was drawn up in the very late stages of the war; one possible hypothesis is that Gurlitt placed for safekeeping with Gerard works that he had acquired in occupied Paris, with the intention of moving these objects at a later date. In 1953, some of these works were shipped to Gurlitt in Dusseldorf, while others remained with Gerard until 1957 (at Gurlitt s cost). The inscription 37b on verso refers to two inventories of artworks with Gerard, one dated 28 April 1944, the other dating from about September 1953. This work is respectively referred to herein as Millet: fin de la journée (1944) and Millet: Feierabend (1953). The personal papers found in Cornelius Gurlitt s Salzburg home include a collection of about 2,400 photographs of artworks. Photograph no. 7.1_F741 is a reproduction of this work; inscribed on verso, a statement of authenticity by the art expert André Schoeller of Paris, 13, Rue de Téhéran, dated 8 June 1944, and a reference to the 1954 exhibition at Villa Hügel. According to an entry in his travel itinerary, Hildebrand Gurlitt visited Paris 24 May 16 June 1944; it is possible that he acquired this work during the course of that stay. Rights: All rights to this report belong to the German Lost Art Foundation under whose administration the Gurlitt Provenance Research Project operates. Disclaimer: The Gurlitt Provenance Research Project, as the successor to the Task Force Schwabing Art Trove, focused exclusively on the provenance of the artwork described in this report. This report does not purport to make pronouncements on any legal claims and legal positions. Where individuals are referred to as descendants, this term is not legally binding. No liability will be accepted for conclusions drawn by third parties based on this report. The Gurlitt Provenance Research Project endeavoured to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided in this report. No liability will be accepted, in particular, for the accuracy of the used sources; the facts, analyses and conclusions contained therein; the exhaustiveness of research and evaluation of the available source material; any analyses or conclusions drawn from the sources in the course of research; the findings on the subject of the report and how they were derived; the authenticity of the artwork, its attribution to a particular artist, and/or its monetary value. The conclusions drawn in this report may be revised, should additional relevant material be discovered. The Gurlitt Provenance Research Project welcomes any information that may augment or clarify the provenance of this work.