Cimetiere de Barbizon

The cemetery at the edge of the village holds the painters who never left. Jean-François Millet died here in January 1875, and was buried in the Chailly-en-Bière section — the commune that administers this ground. Théodore Rousseau, who had died eight years earlier, was already in the same cemetery. Rousseau had asked to be buried next to Millet. By the time Millet died, both men were famous. The Paris art world that had spent decades dismissing their work now sent delegations to the funeral.

The grave markers are plain. Millet's in particular. He had spent his adult life painting the dignity of ordinary labour and died with very little money. The state bought The Angelus for the Louvre the year after his death for a sum that would have changed everything while he was alive.

The cemetery is rarely crowded. It is one of the few places in Barbizon where you can be alone with what this place actually meant.