Haymaking
Currently on view
Léon-Augustin Lhermitte (1844 - 1925), 1887
oil on canvas, 215.9 cm x 265.8 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This enormous painting by the French artist Léon Lhermitte shows a family of peasants resting during haymaking. The work probably has a symbolic element too, evoking youth, maturity and old age. The old man at the front holds a scythe, a traditional symbol of approaching death. This kind of symbolism and the emphasis on the romantic, idyllic side of peasant life made works of this type extremely popular in the late nineteenth century. The Haymakers won the Grand Prix at the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris.
Lhermitte became a famous painter of rural life. According to Vincent van Gogh, the French artist’s secret was ‘that he knows the figure in general – namely the sturdy, severe workman’s figure – through and through, and takes his subjects from the heart of the people.’
Van Gogh too hoped to establish himself as a painter of peasant life, and so Lhermitte’s work was an important source of inspiration to him. He regularly asked his brother Theo to send him reproductions of Lhermitte’s paintings.
- Object number
- s0424M1991
- Dimensions
- 215.9 cm x 265.8 cm, 252.3 cm x 303.2 cm
- artist
- Léon-Augustin Lhermitte
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (purchased with support from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Illusie en werkelijkheid : naturalistische schilderijen, foto's en film, 1875-1918, 8 October 2010 - 16 January 2011, no. geen catalogusnummer
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Illusions of Reality. Naturalist painting, photography and cinema, 1875-1918, 8 October 2010 - 16 January 2011
Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Léon Lhermitte, 21 September 1974 - 10 November 1974, no. 28
Detroit Institute of Arts, Selected Paintings from the Albright Art Gallery and a Collection of Recent Work By British Artists, 1 January 1916 - 1 January 1916, no. 20
Albright Art Gallery, The Inaugural Loan Collection of Paintings, 31 May 1905 - 1 July 1905, no. 105
World’s Columbian Exposition, 1 May 1893 - 30 October 1893, no. 569
Saint Louis, St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall, St. Louis Exposition, 1 January 1891 - 1 January 1891
Paris, Palais du Champ de Mars, Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889, 6 May 1889 - 31 October 1889, no. 941
Paris, Palais des Champs-Élysées, Salon de 1887, 1 May 1887 - 30 June 1887, no. 1519
[medewerkers Van Gogh Museum], Van Gogh Museum : jaarverslag 1991, 1992, p. 16, 19-20
Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889 : catalogue générale officiel : groupe I oeuvres d'art classes 1 à 5, 1889, p. 38
Text by Mary Michele Hamel, Léon Lhermitte : an international exhibition organized by the Paine Art Center & Arboretum, 1974, p. 17-18, 20, 28, 30, 38, 62
19th century european paintings and drawings, 1991, Cat.nr. 17
Ronald de Leeuw, Van Gogh Museum : schilderijen en pastels, 1993, p. 22-23
Pierre Sanchez, Les catalogues des salons des beaux-arts XV (1887-1889), 2009, p. 126
Edwart Vignot, Arlette Sérullaz, La main dans l'art, 2010, p. 96-97
Ed. Ronald de Leeuw and Louis van Tilborgh ; managing ed. Rachel Esner ; cat. authors Edwin Becker, Sjraar van Heugten, Fred Leeman ... [et al.], Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995, 1995, p. 191
Fred Leeman, Hanna Pennock ; with contrib. by Saskia de Bodt, Ronald de Leeuw, Museum Mesdag : catalogue of paintings and drawings, 1996, p. 343-344
Aukje Vergeest, The French collection : nineteenth-century French paintings in Dutch public collections, 2000, p. 212-213
Gabriel P. Weisberg; met bijdragen van Edwin Becker, Maartje de Haan, David Jackson ... [et al.], Illusie en werkelijkheid : naturalistische schilderijen, foto's, theater en film, 1875-1918, 2010, p. 49, 90-91, 142, 150, 152, 177, 217
Louis van Tilborgh, Een Japanse Caillebotte in Amsterdam, p. 6-8
Fred Leeman, Sjraar van Heugten, Louis van Tilborgh, Aanwinsten, p. 10-11
Fred Leeman, Sjraar van Heugten, Louis van Tilborgh, Acquisitions, p. 10-11
Tekst: Esther Darley, Renske Suijver, Meesterwerken in het Van Gogh Museum, 2019, p. 50
Text: Esther Darley, Renske Suijver, Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum, 2019, p. 50