Youth thumb|The Sheepfold. In this painting by Millet, the waning Moon throws a mysterious light across the plain between the villages of Barbizon and Chailly. The Walters Art Museum. Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-Adélaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague, Normandy, close to the coast.Murphy, p.xix. Under the guidance of two village priests—one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux—Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm work,his biographer Alfred Sensier, p. 34 because Millet was the eldest of the sons. So all the farmer's work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs returned in his later art.
Youth thumb|The Sheepfold. In this painting by Millet, the waning Moon throws a mysterious light across the plain between the villages of Barbizon and Chailly. The Walters Art Museum. Millet was the first child of Jean-Louis-Nicolas and Aimée-Henriette-A.délaïde Henry Millet, members of the farming community in the village of Gruchy, in Gréville-Hague, Normandy, close to the coast.Murphy p.xix. Under the guidance of two village priests—one of them was vicar Jean Lebrisseux—Millet acquired a knowledge of Latin and modern authors. But soon he had to help his father with the farm work,his biographer Alfred Sensier, p. 34 because Millet was the eldest of the sons So all the farmer's work was familiar to him: to mow, make hay, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, spread manure, plow, sow, etc. All these motifs returned in his later art.