Cornell Fine Arts Museum Lecture: Jean Francois Millet: Where Have all the Peasants gone?

Description

Join Laurence J. Ruggiero, Ph.D., Director of The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, as he presents Jean François Millet: Where Have all the Peasants Gone? Jean François Millet (1814–75) was a prominent member of the group of mid-nineteenth century French artists often referred to as the Barbizon School. Like the other Barbizon painters, Millet was a gifted landscape artist but his work is distinguished by the crucial role he assigned figures in landscapes. Dr. Ruggiero will discuss a few of Millet’s major paintings in their artistic, historical and contemporary contexts in both Europe and America. Dr. Laurence J. Ruggiero is director of The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, which houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany in the world. Before he joined the Morse in 1992, Dr. Ruggiero was director of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, executive director of the Oakland Museum Association in California, and assistant to the president of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Dr. Ruggiero holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the History of Art from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Boston University. This lecture is in conjunction with Towards Impressionism: Landscape Painting from Corot to Monet, on view at the Museum January 20–April 8. To complement the show, the Morse Museum of American Art will present Landscape in 19th-Century America beginning January 16.