Frank Millet: Denmark and Northern Germany

In direct contrast to Frank Millet's spirited drawings as a war artist and writer, the following four illustrations are examples of Millet as travel writer and illustrator. The articles appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine for April, May and June of 1885 in articles entitled A Wild Goose Chase I, II, and III. I have only been able to access links to the April and June issues at Cornell's online library where you may view the entire articles with corresponding illustrations.

Skagen Fisher-Girls was published in the May issue that dealt with Millet's travels in Denmark. (For some unknown reason it doesn't appear in the May issue of Cornell's collection, though my copy is imprinted Vol. LXX-No. 420 and the April issue Vol. LXX-No. 419. These volume numbers may help you track down the May article somewhere, should you be that interested.)

Flower Girls of Vierlande from the third instalment in the June issue is not any more lively than the fisher-girls. It's typical of the genre painting of the time and Millet seems as capable as any of his peers but just as lukewarm about his subjects. The production process of the time required that these drawings be adapted for printing by an engraver who prevented the printed work from being an actual reproduction made directly from the illustration. I suspect that engravers were better at engraving than they were at drawing. Certainly the faces in fisher-girls are just this side of awful, the faces above better but not recognizable as Millet's drawing style.

In this case we have a reproduction from a pen-and-ink drawing by Millet (also in the June issue) with no intervention by an engraver. Millet's craftsmanship is evident and his attention to detail considerable but the pose is boring and the drawing without any tension created by blacks and whites playing off each other.

An enlargement from Friendly Call Personally, I think Millet was bored with the assignment. I feel he would much rather be covering a battle in an alien and exotic land.

Click on image to enlarge this pen drawing entitled A Rope-walk which depicts a Vierlande maid crafting rope in the traditional way. It's one of the most interesting of Millet's illustrations in the series of articles but it could also be described as a dull pose.

Next: Frank Millet as war artist and writer.