In the 1850s, Jean‐François Millet and Jules Breton relocated their studios from Paris to the French countryside, where they no longer had access to the professional models that posed in urban ateliers. This study examines the evolution of their studio practice within the rural context: it explores their shift from professional to proprietary and peasant models, how the shift inflected the artist/model transaction, and their negotiation of the social structures and standards of decorum of the rural communities in which their studios were located.