Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00001290The Little Shepherdess
Provenance
Probably F. Petit, by December 31, 1873 [according to Knoedler stock book no. K-15217]; sold to Knoedler & Co. for 8,500 francs, December 31, 1873; sold by Knoedler to Albert Spencer, New York, for $2,400, November 2, 1874 [according to the Knoedler stock book cited above]; his sale, Ortgies & Co., New York, February 28, 1888, lot 44, for $7,500 to Potter Palmer [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; buyer according to Art Amateur 1888]; Potter Palmer (died 1902), Chicago, 1888; his widow, Bertha Honoré Palmer (died 1918); by descent to their sons Honoré and Potter Palmer; given by them to the Art Institute, 1922.
Exhibition history
Paris, Galeries Georges Petit, Exposition de chefs-d’oeuvre de l’école français, May 1910, cat. 119. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 254. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 199A. Art Institute of Chicago, The Complete Printed Work of Jean François Millet, October 28, 1944–January 7, 1945, no cat. Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, Van Gogh's Bedrooms, Feb. 14 - May 10, 2016.
Publications
Montezuma, “My Note Book,” The Art Amateur 18, 5 (1888), p. 105. Julia Ady, “Jean-François Millet,” Masters in Art 1, 8 (1900), p. 35. Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 15, 5 (1921), p. 157 (ill.). Lena M. McCauley, “Some Collectors of Paintings,” Art and Archaeology 12, 3–4 (1921), p. 166 Art Institute of Chicago, Forty-Third Annual Report (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1921), p. 38 (ill.) Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture and Paintings (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1922), p. 68, no. 825. Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, and Paintings (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 68, no. 825. “Millets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18, 7 (1924), p. 88. Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), pp. 51, 146, no. 825. Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), pp. 47, 164. Ishbel Ross, Silhouette in Diamonds: The Life of Mrs. Potter Palmer (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960), p. 156. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 312–13. Robert L. Herbert, “Millet Reconsidered,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 1 (1966), pp. 38, 62, 63 (ill.), 64, fig. 23. Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 74, 55 (1966), p. 194. Patricia Phagan, ed., Charles Meryon and Jean-François Millet: Etchings of Urban and Rural 19th-Century France, exh. cat. (Athens, Georgia: Georgia Museum of Art, 1993), p. 57, under no. 34. Chantal Georgel, Millet (Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2014), pp. 290, 293–294, fig. 281. Gloria Groom, Van Gogh's Bedrooms, Exh. Cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Press, 2016), pp. 155.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jean-François Millet (French, 1814–1875)
- Date
- 1868–72
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 35.7 × 25.5 cm (14 × 10 in.); Framed: 54.6 × 53.5 cm (21 1/2 × 17 1/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- painting
- Style
- nineteenth century
- Place
- France
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Potter Palmer Collection
- Accession no.
- 1922.413
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