Harvest Zinaida Serebryakova (1884-1967)

Description of Zinaida Serebryakova’s painting The Harvest

Just before the outbreak of World War I, the Russian artist Zinaida Serebryakova is forced to return to her homeland after an Italian trip.

Arriving at the family estate hidden away in the province of Kharkov, she immediately begins to work on images of working peasants. She begins to write numerous sketches and paintings. During this period, she painted a huge canvas, which later destroys itself, leaving him a few small fragments.

Based on the original sketches and studies, the artist planned in the composition to depict the images of peasants engaged in their usual mundane work. She was mainly interested in depicting the fields and the harvest.

Later, however, the artist completely reconsiders the subject and decides to depict several peasant women resting or eating during the harvest in the field. In particular, Serebryakova makes such a decision because of the mass absence of men from the fields, due to the approaching war.

In the composition created, the artist has decided to paint four young women, two of whom will be depicted standing and two of whom will be seated on a haystack. For the landscape the author chooses golden spikelets and yellow-green unploughed fields, as well as blue calm sky.

Zinaida Serebryakova places the horizon line unnaturally high. In the distance, among the fields, the domes of the local church are hidden behind the branches of the trees, as well as the houses of her nearby native village. The artist originally titled her painting "Peasant Girls in the Field.

Girls are depicted in traditional peasant clothing with scarves tied on their heads. Through such bright folk costumes Serebryakova was able to convey the everyday atmosphere of peasant life and get closer to her beloved people.