Our daily bread 1886

Anders Zorn painted this scene of rural life using oil on canvas, a traditional fine art medium. However, the way he applied it challenges any high-art pretensions. Zorn captured the backbreaking labor of the figures in this field. We see them resting in the foreground by a ditch, smoke rising from the fire. The land has been worked, cultivated, and harvested. These laborers exist within a wider economic system of agricultural production and consumption. They are toiling to produce value. The artist's brushstrokes evoke the texture of sun-dried grasses and worn garments. He used thick daubs of paint to give weight and form to the worker’s bodies. The very act of painting mirrors the labor it represents, a translation of physical effort into visual form. By focusing on the conditions of its making, we can see beyond the surface beauty to the deeper social significance embedded in the image, calling into question the traditional divide between art and the everyday experience.