Farmyard Scene: Reaping

Theobald Michau 1676 - 1765

Summary

This is probably a representation of Summer from a series of the Seasons and a companion scene to Farmyard Scene: Vintage (Manchester Art Gallery 1979.474). A group of peasants takes a rest at the end of a busy day's reaping. Two of the men sit talking on sheaves of grain; another drinks from a large earthenware flagon; a woman sits beside them with a tightly swaddled baby, while her two older children eat from a bowl at her feet. Others are still active in the valley below. A horse and cart sets off in the direction of the nearby village. The scene is bathed in the golden light of a fine summer sunset. Michau trained in Brussels with Lucas Achtschellinck (1626–1699). He became a master at the Brussels Guild of St Luke in 1698 and was at the Antwerp guild from 1710. His landscapes and genre scenes are in the anecdotal narrative tradition of Jan Brueghel the Elder and David Teniers the Younger.