A COMPLETE ACCOUNT of the history and significance of the painting called the Portal of Valenciennes (Fig. 1), acquired by The Frick Collection last year, cannot yet be given. Yet it seemed important to publish now what is known about this painting, since, until it reappeared in London in December 1990, few persons had seen it over the previous sixty-five years, and its reputation, such as it was, had been based on the dim black-and-white reproductions in the Doucet and Lehmann sale catalogues of 1912 and 1925.

RECENT examination of J.-F. Millet's Wood sawyers, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fig. 18), undertaken during conservation work by Lucia Scalisi, has revealed that beneath it lies an earlier painting, which can probably be identified with a lost oil sketch symbolising The Republic submitted by Millet to a French State Competition in 1848 (Fig.25). This article will first discuss the history and provenance of the Wood sawyers, as well as its genesis and dating, and then proceed to the significance of the painting beneath it. In conclusion, some problems concerning the present state of the work will be addressed, in the light of the evi- dence set out in the Technical Report (see p. 18 below).