Focus on Peasant Women with Brushwood and explore the Provenance.
The painting was painted c. 1852 and was soon acquired by the Russian Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko. After the death of the owner, the painting, like all the works from his collection, was bequeathed to the Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts and became part of the Kushelev gallery; in 1922 it was transferred to the State Hermitage, in Saint Petersburg.A preparatory drawing by Millet in pencil and gouache (34.3 × 27.6 cm) is known; it dates from 1858 and is a fully developed sketch of the figures of the two peasant women. Initially, the drawing was part of the collection of Hendrik Willem Mesdag. In March 1920 it was sold in New York, to a certain Seaman, then after changing several owners, since November 1962 it has been in the collection of the banker Robert Lehman. After Lehman's death in 1969, the drawing, along with the bulk of his collection (about 3,000 works of art), was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for safekeeping.
State Hermitage New York Nikolai Alexandrovich Kushelev-Bezborodko Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts Robert Lehman Saint Petersburg Hendrik Willem Mesdag Metropolitan Museum of Art