Currently indexing
Unlike Millet, and in the tradition of Breton, Lhermitte was committed to the idealisation of the French peasant. He regarded field labourers as heroic figures, seldom complaining and always dignified even when exhausted by their day's toil. This painting is based on a drawing made at Rue Chailly farm in the artist's native village of Mont-Saint-Père in 1886. Despite the plein air effects in the landscape, there is a strong emphasis on formal composition and academic drawing. From the beginning of the 1880s, with the increasing availability of threshing machines and other devices, rustic life was changing irrevocably, and Lhermitte knew that the activities represented in his paintings were already "retardataire".
Chester Beatty Collection, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1951
The Peasant in the French Nineteenth Century Art, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 1980
The Irish Impressionists, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1984-1985
The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium, 1850-1914, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 9 October - 18 November 1984; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1 February - 10 March 1985
La peinture Française du XIXe siècle: collection Chester Beatty de la Galerie Nationale d'Irlande, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais, 21 January - 27 March 1989; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper, 8 April - 5 June 1989; Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, 20 June - 4 September 1989
French 19th and 20th Century Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland: Corot to Picasso, Daimaru Museum, Tokyo, 5 September-17 September 1996; Daimaru Museum, Kyoto, 10 October-22 October 1996; Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi, 26 October-2 December 1996; Daimaru Museum, Umeda,Osaka, 22 January-9 February 1997; Aomori Municpal Gallery of Art, Aomori, 2 April-20 April 1997
Chester Beatty: The Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, 7 September 2012 - 1 September 2013
Chester Beatty: The Paintings, Hunt Museum, Limerick, 1 February - 30 March 2014