Leconte de Lisle

Jean-François Millet

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man stands looking off to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is squared to us, but he turns his head to the right and looks down in that direction with brown eyes. He has a wide-bridged nose, full lips, and a rounded chin. His cheekbone-length brown hair is parted to the side and brushed straight over his ears. His tomato-red cravat is tied high around his neck over a white shirt and an olive-green vest patterned with a gold-colored grid. His navy-blue coat falls almost to his knees, and he wears brown pants. The stone ledge comes almost to hip height, and the man leans onto his left hand, to our right, braced near its front ledge. The ledge and background are flint gray deepening to iron gray along the bottom edge. The artist signed the painting as if his name was carved into the front face of the ledge: “F. MILLET.”