Woman Carrying Jug Through Portal

Miller identified the prototype for this drawing simply as "French School." It could represent a painting by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803-1860), a French artist who was popularizing "orientalist" subjects during the 1830s.

Alfred Jacob Miller was a prolific sketcher. He filled many journals with drawings and captions from the time he was studying in Paris and Rome (1833) until the 1870's. The varied interests of Miller are clearly reflected in these sketches: rural sites, studies after Old Master paintings, illustrations of literature, and comical scenes and characters.

This sketch comes from the family album of L. Vernon Miller, which contains works that have passed down through the Miller family directly from the artist.