“Art will never come,” said Jean-François Millet, “except from some small disregarded corner where an isolated and inspired man is studying the mysteries of nature.” Was he referring to himself? Millet was both isolated and inspired. And his soulful portrayals of peasant life, a disregarded corner, are deeply in tune with the mysteries of land and soil. For the first time, Millet’s influence on other artists—Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, and Salvador Dalí among them—is in the spotlight. —E.C.