At the potato harvest 

Hugo Mühlig made this oil on canvas painting called ‘At the Potato Harvest’, but we don’t know exactly when. Mühlig often depicted peasant life in Germany, but these weren't documentary images. They idealize rural labour. The figures are placed in a vast landscape but there is no feeling of abundance and the workers seem burdened. The family here is a social unit. This connects with German debates about rural life at the time, when rapid industrialization prompted anxieties about the loss of traditional ways of life. This image creates meaning through its romanticized visual codes, reminiscent of the Barbizon school in France which had already turned to painting rural life. To understand such art better, we delve into social history, exploring the complex interplay between art, culture, and the institutions that shape them. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.