Portrait of Armand Ono

Portrait of Armand Ono, painted in 1843 in oil on canvas and held at the Musée Thomas-Henry, Cherbourg, is another of the provincial portraits that Millet produced in his early career to support himself financially while developing as a painter. Armand Ono was presumably a figure within the Cherbourg social milieu, possibly a young man of the bourgeois or professional class. The 1843 date places this slightly after the Portrait of Feuardent, showing Millet continuing his portrait practice in Cherbourg during the same formative period. The Musée Thomas-Henry's holding of multiple Millet portraits from this period makes it the essential institution for understanding the full range of his early work before the Barbizon transformation.

Oil on canvas with the academic portrait technique appropriate to a young sitter — slightly warmer in palette than portraits of older subjects, with attention to the specific skin texture and physiognomy of youth. The handling retains the careful, controlled surface of Millet's early academic formation.