Maison de Millet — Musée Millet

Jean-François Millet arrived in Barbizon in 1849, fleeing a cholera epidemic in Paris and the turbulence of the Second Republic. He had intended to stay a few months. He stayed until his death in 1875.

The house at 29 Grande Rue was his studio, his home, and eventually his legacy. It has operated as a private museum since 1922 — distinct from the Musée des Peintres de Barbizon at the Auberge Ganne. The two institutions tell different things. The Auberge Ganne tells the story of the group: the community of painters, their collective life, their arguments and friendships and shared meals. The Maison de Millet tells the story of one man: his palette, his tools, his personal objects, original paintings by his contemporaries. A more intimate account of what it actually cost to make the work that ended up in the Louvre.

Millet is buried in the cemetery at Chailly-en-Bière. The Angelus, the painting that made him a national figure, was bought by the French state the year after his death for a sum that would have changed everything while he was alive. The house on the Grande Rue is open every day except Tuesday.