The Baby’s Hour

Lhermitte’s subject matter often featured peasants and agrarian life, reflecting his experience as a youth. Throughout his career, he created light-filled compositions in the Barbizon tradition and was deeply influenced by Jean François Millet. His works reinforced the dignity of rural life in France in the late nineteenth century. The artist achieved critical success at the official Salon beginning in the 1860s. He was much admired by his peers and even received an invitation from Edgar Degas to exhibit with the Impressionists in 1879, though he never did.