Offering to Pan

Jean-François Millet executed this mythological scene showing figures making offerings to Pan, the Greek god of the wild. A pastoral landscape provides the setting as rustic worshippers approach a statue of the goat-legged deity. The scene combines classical subject matter with Millet's naturalistic observation of rural life.

This work represents Millet's engagement with academic tradition before he focused exclusively on contemporary peasant subjects. The earthy palette and genuine feeling for rural landscape anticipate his later major works. Now at the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, France.