Haymaking
Currently on view
Léon-Augustin Lhermitte (1844 - 1925), 1887
oil on canvas, 215.9 cm x 265.8 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This enormous painting by the French artist Léon Lhermitte shows a family of peasants resting during haymaking. The work probably has a symbolic element too, evoking youth, maturity and old age. The old man at the front holds a scythe, a traditional symbol of approaching death. This kind of symbolism and the emphasis on the romantic, idyllic side of peasant life made works of this type extremely popular in the late nineteenth century. The Haymakers won the Grand Prix at the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris.
Lhermitte became a famous painter of rural life. According to Vincent van Gogh, the French artist’s secret was ‘that he knows the figure in general – namely the sturdy, severe workman’s figure – through and through, and takes his subjects from the heart of the people.’
Van Gogh too hoped to establish himself as a painter of peasant life, and so Lhermitte’s work was an important source of inspiration to him. He regularly asked his brother Theo to send him reproductions of Lhermitte’s paintings.
- Object number
- s0424M1991
- Dimensions
- 215.9 cm x 265.8 cm, 252.3 cm x 303.2 cm, 13.5 cm
- artist
- Léon-Augustin Lhermitte
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Illusie en werkelijkheid : naturalistische schilderijen, foto's en film, 1875-1918, 8 October 2010-16 January 2011, no. zonder nr.
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Illusions of Reality. Naturalist painting, photography and cinema, 1875-1918, 8 October 2010-16 January 2011
Oshkosh, Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Léon Lhermitte, 21 September-10 November 1974, no. 28
Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Selected Paintings from the Albright Art Gallery and a Collection of Recent Work By British Artists, January 1916, no. 20
Buffalo (New York), Albright Art Gallery, The Inaugural Loan Collection of Paintings, 31 May-1 July 1905, no. 105
Chicago, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1 May-30 October 1893, no. 569
Saint Louis, St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall, St. Louis Exposition, 1891
Paris, Palais du Champ de Mars, Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889, 6 May-31 October 1889, no. 941
Paris, Palais des Champs-Élysées, Salon de 1887, 1 May-30 June 1887, no. 1519
Baschet, Ludovic, Salon de 1887 : catalogue illustré, peinture & sculpture, [1887], p. 126