Image: public domain, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Harvesters
Farm workers cut golden wheat in the summer heat, while others rest and share a meal under a tree. It was one of six paintings of the seasons, made for the dining room of a merchant from Antwerp.
🎧 Audio guide available in the 3D museum
Did you know?
- Look under the tree: one worker has fallen fast asleep, sprawled on his back with an arm behind his head.
- Look for the woman in a big triangular hat cutting a slice from a huge wheel of cheese.
- Look into the middle distance: people swim in a pond and play a game on the village green.
- Far away you can see a church, houses and ships on the water: the wider world beyond the fields.
- Five of the six season paintings survive: three are in Vienna, one in Prague, and this is the only one in America.
- The Met bought it in 1919 for a low price, because the art market had nearly collapsed during the First World War.
About the artist
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569) worked in Antwerp and later in Brussels, after a long journey to Italy across the Alps.
He is the great painter of Flemish village life and landscapes, famous for The Harvesters, Hunters in the Snow and The Tower of Babel.
An early biographer tells that he and a friend dressed up as peasants to join village weddings and fairs, and both of his sons grew up to be painters too.
More works
The Assumption of the VirginEl Greco, 1577–79
Ginevra de' BenciLeonardo da Vinci, c. 1474/78
The Alba MadonnaRaphael, c. 1510
View of ToledoEl Greco, c. 1599–1600
Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by ChildrenGian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1616–17
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