NOTES
Three farm workers with scythes harvest hay in the shady spots of a sun-dappled landscape. Laborers were popular subjects with many late 19th-century artists. But unlike many of the other artists on view, Léon-Augustin Lhermitte consistently exhibited paintings of working-class people in the annual Salons, the government-supported exhibitions that had the ability to make or break an artist’s career.
This work is a pastel version of an oil painting Lhermitte exhibited at the 1906 Salon. The artist was widely praised for his focus on the individuality of the workers he portrayed. At this point in his career, he had begun to acknowledge Impressionist techniques in his work, including his use of pastel as a medium. The shift is apparent in the focus on landscape rather than figures, on the atmospheric conditions, and the splash of color in the flowers on the left.
