Pictures of the Month | September 2010
Picture of the Month
September 2010
The Harvest Wagon, about 1767
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788)
Oil on Canvas
Thomas Gainsborough’s The Harvest Wagon captures the celebratory atmosphere of harvest time.
A wagonload of farm workers return from a day on the land. They celebrate the year’s abundant crops by swigging cider and fooling around. A drover halts the team of horses to allow a young girl to join the revelry.
Between 1758 and 1774, Gainsborough lived in Bath. The surrounding countryside provided inspiration for this painting. According to tradition, Gainsborough gave The Harvest Wagon to his friend Walter Wiltshire in return for the leading grey horse featured in the picture. The two young women looking upwards are believed to be portraits of Gainsborough’s daughters, Mary and Margaret.
Whilst in Bath, Gainsborough became heavily influenced by the paintings of the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). Gainsborough based his group of figures in The Harvest Wagon on Rubens’s preparatory sketch for The Descent from the Cross (1611), then at nearby Corsham Court in Wiltshire, and on an engraving after the final painting. He adopts Rubens’s dynamic sense of movement, but transforms it. Whereas Rubens emphasises the heavy, downward pull of Christ’s body, the figures in The Harvest Wagon convey a feeling of lively ascent. By quoting Rubens in this way, Gainsborough endowed his work with grandeur and authority.
Gainsborough presents a nostalgic, idealised vision of the English countryside. Poverty and exploitation are nowhere to be seen. Instead, the peasantry lead healthy and contented lives, with ample time to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
The Harvest Wagon vividly recreates the changing atmosphere of September. While the mellow sunlight and long shadows recall the dwindling warmth of late summer, red and golden leaves hint at the onset of autumn.
A free gallery talk will be given on Thursday 9 September at 1.30pm.
Hannah Carroll, NADFAS Curatorial and Education Intern (February – July 2010)
| What is your favourite work of art in the Barber Institute galleries? Drop us a line at info@barber.org.uk and let us know, and we could feature your choice in a future Picture of the Month. |