The Harvesters
Reapers in a golden wheat field and others eating lunch under a tree: a 16th-century masterpiece marking the start of landscape, not religious, painting. Full commentary ↓
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The Harvesters is an oil painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 119 × 162 cm.
In the pictureIn the right foreground, in the shade of a large pear tree, peasants eat bread and porridge, and one man has fallen asleep with his legs stretched out. On the left, people cut wheat with scythes and tie it into sheaves, and women walk down a narrow path through the field. Beyond them, a village and church, a green valley and a sea with ships on it stretch far into the distance.
BackgroundPainted in 1565, it represents August (or July–August) in a series of the twelve months commissioned by a wealthy Antwerp merchant. Only five paintings from the series survive, scattered among Vienna, Prague and New York. They are counted among the first paintings to take the seasons and farm work themselves, rather than the Bible or mythology, as their subject, and they became a starting point for Western landscape painting.
Puzzle tipThe yellow wheat field is large, but people and sheaves are everywhere, giving plenty of reference points. Complete the tree and the group of figures in the foreground first, and divide the field into the cut areas (pale stubble) and the standing areas (deep yellow). Leave the green distance and the sky for last. Even 300 pieces is manageable, with clues in abundance.
- Artist
- Netherlandish, Breda (?) ca. 1525–1569 Brussels
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on oak
- Dimensions
- 119 x 162 cm
- Credit line
- Rogers Fund, 1919
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
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