
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00001293The Woodchopper
Inscriptions
Stamped lower right: J.F. Millet
Provenance
The artist; his estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 10–11, 1875, lot 28. Potter Palmer (died 1902), Chicago, 1894 [according to an inventory dated December 1921 in the Art Institute Archives]; his widow, Bertha Honoré Palmer (died 1918); by descent to their sons Honoré and Potter Palmer; given to the Art Institute, 1922.
Exhibition history
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings from the Collection of Mrs. Potter Palmer, May–August 1910, cat. 32. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 255. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 199B. Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, Shikago Bijutsukan Insho-ha ten (The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago), October 18–December 17, 1985, no. 3; Fukuoka Art Museum, January 5–February 2, 1986; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, March 4–April 13, 1986. Art Institute of Chicago, Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte, June 16–September 19, 2004, hors cat. Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, Van Gogh's Bedrooms, Feb. 14 - May 10, 2016.
Publications
Louis Soullié, Peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins de Jean-François Millet: relevés dans les catalogues de ventes de 1849 à 1900 (Paris: L. Soullié, 1900), p. 49. Lena M. McCauley, “Some Collectors of Paintings,” Art and Archaeology 12, 3–4 (1921), p. 167. Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Millet: Raconté par lui-même, vol. 2 (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1921), pp. 46, 74, no. 11. Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture and Paintings (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1922), p. 68, no. 828. “The Potter Palmer Collection of Paintings,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 16, 3 (1922), p. 37. Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, and Paintings (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 68, no. 828. “Millets in the Art Institute,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18, 7 (1924), pp. 88 (ill.), 89. Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 146, no. 828. Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 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), p. 312. Robert L. Herbert, “Millet Reconsidered,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 1 (1966), pp. 45, 61, fig. 17. Chantal Georgel, Millet (Paris: Citadelles & Mazenod, 2014), p. 325, fig. 314. 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
- c. 1858–66
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 81 × 65 cm (31 7/8 × 25 9/16 in.); Framed: 99.1 × 83.8 cm (39 × 33 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- painting
- Style
- Barbizon School
- Place
- France
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Potter Palmer Collection
- Accession no.
- 1922.416
More by Jean François Millet in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00001293
Powered by Art Trackers



