Harvest Scenes in 19th Century Art
Works by Pissarro, Bouguereau, Van Gogh and Gauguin
The end of summer brings the time of harvest, when much of the earth gives up her last offerings before the cold darkness of winter. In the later 19th century, use of motorized equipment was not yet widespread and manual labor still powered the harvesting of various crops, with many men and women working from sunrise to sunset.
Like any force of nature, the harvest and the behavior of harvesters has fascinated artists for centuries, particularly Camille Pissarro, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, all of whom painted multiple interpretations of the season.
Pissarro’s The Harvest
French Impressionist Camille Pissarro was quite fond of depicting harvest-time and produced several works showing the gathering of hay, potatoes or apples amid a backdrop of rural beauty. Pissarro’s development of his own style can be traced through his harvest scenes, with earlier paintings showing the influence of Pissarro’s teacher Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, the plein-air landscape master. As Pissarro became a master in his own right, his harvest works shifted from darker, more realistic scenes to light-infused Impressionist and Pointillist techniques.
Pissarro’s 1882 The Harvest has flowing lines that connect the harvesters to the wheat they are bundling. The flow of the scene also creates a sense of energy and the collective rhythm that develops when a group works at a common task. Pissarro was never an elitist and felt a certain affinity toward people who toiled in the fields or farmed land, and this respect shows in his portrayal of those who were still generally referred to as peasants at the time.
Bouguereau’s Rest at Harvest
Another French artist intrigued by the harvest theme was William-Adolphe Bouguereau, although the Academic Bouguereau did not care for Impressionist methods. In the style of his day, Bouguereau’s harvesters tend to be rather idealized and interchangeable with figures in his classical paintings. Nonetheless, Bouguereau’s 1865 Rest at Harvest offers a glimpse of a young woman taking a break from fieldwork — a physical rest, perhaps, but also a moment to allow herself to daydream and escape to a more romantic world.
Bouguereau’s harvester here is appealingly rustic, wearing a rumpled apron and holding a flower in her hand. She is not resting by sleeping but has her eyes open as she curls up barefoot on the ground, and she gives the impression of curious innocence. Bouguereau further distinguishes the painting by its interesting perspective, with an angle of tall grass growing behind the girl leading to a house in the background.
Van Gogh’s The Red Vineyard
Vincent van Gogh’s bright harvest paintings seem to show a link between the artist and his subject matter. Like Van Gogh’s The Sower, who plants seeds for future harvesting, Van Gogh himself was a tireless worker who pushed through troubled times hoping that his art would reap financial and spiritual rewards.
The tragic irony of Van Gogh’s life, of course, is that he was not appreciated until after his suicide and reportedly only sold one painting of the many he produced. That painting was The Red Vineyard, a scene full of workers and color and bustling activity, and a scene initially noted by Van Gogh while exploring the Arles countryside with his friend and fellow Post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin.
Gauguin’s Grape Harvest at Arles
Like Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin also found inspiration in the fields of southern France. However, while Gauguin’s Yellow Haystacks (or Golden Harvest) depicts a more life-affirming portrait of nature‘s bounty, his 1888 Grape Harvest at Arles carries the subtitle of Human Misery. Van Gogh and Gauguin were working and living together when Gauguin painted Grape Harvest at Arles: Human Misery, a scene which Van Gogh interpreted very differently as the above-noted The Red Vineyard.
The central female of Gauguin’s painting seems deeply troubled and even violated. She may have been forced into physical contact by a fellow worker, or she may have given in to temptation and regrets her actions. The nun-like figures beyond her suggest a need for penance or seclusion, perhaps to hide an illegitimate pregnancy. In a way, Gauguin’s Grape Harvest at Arles appears to be the darker side of Bouguereau’s innocent Rest at Harvest, with a young woman now perhaps harvesting more than she had hoped for and suffering the late 19th century consequences.
Sources
- Camille Pissarro -- Joachim Pissarro (Rizzoli Art Series, 1992)
- French Music, Culture and National Identity, 1870-1939 -- Barbara L. Kelly, Ed. (University of Rochester Press, 2008)
The Harvest (Camille Pissarro, 1882)
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Rest at Harvest (Wm.-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1865)
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The Red Vineyard (Vincent van Gogh, 1888)
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Grape Harvest at Arles (Paul Gauguin, 1888)
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