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Notes

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This scene is set on the banks of the river Marne near to the artist’s native village of Mont-Saint-Père. An ageing reaper sits barefoot. In a letter to his brother Theo written in 1885, Vincent van Gogh praised Lhermitte as ‘the absolute master of figure… above all excelling in modelling, he perfectly satisfies all that honesty demands.’ Lhermitte’s skills as a draughtsman depict peasant figures without prettify caricatured. The artist's early work had been of the Realist tradition. However, in this late work we can see the influence of the artist’s increasing interest in pastel as a medium and the colours and loose handling of the Impressionists.

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle

Title

The Reaper's Rest (Le repos du faucheur)

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 45.3 x W 37.5 cm

Accession number

1977.53.6

Acquisition method

donated by Mr Garfield Weston, 1977

Work type

Painting

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP England

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Artist or maker

Léon-Augustin Lhermitte

1844–1925

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