The Miller’s Wife (La femme du meunier)

From the Minneapolis Institute of Art record

This refined study of a woman in an old flour mill presents her with the dignity that one expects in a realist drawing. The figure is calm, strong, self-satisfied—almost monumental. As she takes a break from operating the grinding mill behind her, she is bathed in a warm light filtering in from the right. The drawing is signed Alex Cabanel, as was the practice of Alexandre Cabanel, one of the most successful artists in nineteenth-century Europe. Apart from his activity as a portraitist, he normally produced historical and mythological pictures—genres diametrically opposed to Realism. Occasionally a drawing or painting like this one surfaces that suggests Cabanel dipped his toe into the realist pool. It is also possible that one of his many students hoped to get a better price for their work by applying the famous artist’s name. France