Picking fruit from tree outside cottage 1847 - 1857

Charles Jacque made this etching, "Picking fruit from tree outside cottage," sometime in the mid-19th century. As a painter and printmaker, Jacque focused on rural genre scenes, especially of French peasant life. Jacque made this image during a period of significant social and economic change in France, in which he seems to be calling for a return to simpler times, and to the virtues of agricultural labor. However, what might seem idyllic to us is complicated by questions of class and labor. The figures here are anonymous, their labor part of an unspecified system. We might ask, what is the relationship between the people and the land they work? Are they owners, or are they laborers? What does it mean to depict rural life in such a way that it appears timeless, erasing the social struggles inherent in this way of life? The image also hints at the emotional connections to the land and labor for the community it represents. Despite its modest size, the print invites us to reflect on the complex relationships between people, place, and the quiet dignity of manual labor.