1885
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Seated Peasant Woman is a 1885 by Léon Augustin Lhermitte, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a dark dress sits on a wooden stool, her hands resting in her lap. Behind her, a plain wall and a few tools lean against it. The light comes from one side, making her face stand out. Lhermitte painted rural life in France without making it look pretty or sad. He showed workers as they really were—tired, strong, ordinary. This was rare at a time when many artists either romanticized peasants or ignored them. If you like this quiet honesty, look up the subject *France, 19th century*.
Lhermitte's work portrays simple peasants working in harmony with a bountiful natural environment without reference to industrial development, mechanization of farm work, and the depopulation of the countryside. His sturdy images of Champagne's rural life have a sober, unsentimental character in which the peasant figures are neither tidied nor prettified. The artist achieved his most personal expression in his charcoal drawings which first achieved critical success in London where they were exhibited from the early 1870s. By the 1880s, his drawings had gained wide popularity in France.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Léon Augustin Lhermitte (French pronunciation: ; 31 July 1844 – 28 July 1925) was a French naturalist painter and etcher whose primary subject matter was rural scenes depicting peasants at work.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
