Artwork
The Grape Harvest
The Grape Harvest is an oil painting by the Impressionist artist Léon Augustin Lhermitte. It dates from 1892 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
By focusing on these figures amidst the fruit, the work serves as a realistic representation of rural life and the physical exertion required for the harvest.
Léon Augustin Lhermitte's 1892 oil painting, The Grape Harvest, centers on the labor and communal activity of the vintage season. The composition explicitly depicts a man, a woman, and a boy engaged in the agricultural work of harvesting grapes. By focusing on these figures amidst the fruit, the work serves as a realistic representation of rural life and the physical exertion required for the harvest.
The inclusion of the child alongside adults suggests the intergenerational nature of this seasonal toil. The imagery functions as an iconographic record of 19th-century peasant labor, elevating the daily routines of vineyard workers to the status of high art through its monumental scale and detailed observation of human effort.
Technique & Style
Léon Augustin Lhermitte's The Grape Harvest, executed in 1892, is an oil painting on canvas. The work measures approximately 251.5 centimeters in height and 209.9 centimeters in width, indicating a large-scale format typical of the artist's ambitious genre scenes. The medium of oil paint allows for the detailed rendering of the figures, including men, women, and a boy, as well as the grapes central to the composition.
Housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting depicts a scene of agricultural labor. The formal qualities emphasize the depiction of work through the arrangement of human figures and the harvest elements, utilizing the durability and texture of the canvas support to present a monumental view of rural life.
History & Provenance
Léon Augustin Lhermitte’s The Grape Harvest is dated to 1892, aligning with the artist’s mature period noted for large-scale rural genre scenes. The work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains housed; its dimensions (251.5 × 209.9 cm) correspond to the museum’s holdings. No documented commission or preparatory records have been traced, and the painting’s creation history prior to the museum acquisition is unrecorded in the available sources.
The records confirm the institution's ownership but do not specify a unique inventory or accession number, nor a chronology of past exhibitions.
Overview
Léon Augustin Lhermitte, a French artist recognized for his portrayals of agricultural workers, completed The Grape Harvest in 1892. This oil painting captures a moment of rural labor, depicting individuals engaged in the demanding yet communal activity of grape picking. The work is now part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection.
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Artist & collection
Artist
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.
