Harvest 1925

Constant Permeke, sometime in the early to mid 20th century, rendered this scene of rural toil in earthy browns and muted yellows, smearing paint across the canvas in broad strokes. I can imagine him, standing before the easel, wrestling with the image, trying to capture the feel of the harvest. The laborers seem to emerge from the landscape itself, their forms blurring into the haystacks, the soil, the sky. It’s as if Permeke is less interested in depicting individual figures and more focused on the overall atmosphere and the backbreaking work of agricultural life. I am particularly drawn to the thick, tactile quality of the paint. You can almost feel the weight of the hay bales and the grit of the earth. With his gestural application, Permeke captures the essence of manual labor, a theme he explored throughout his career, alongside other artists of the time like Millet and Van Gogh. There's a sense of shared humanity here, a connection to the land and the cycles of nature that transcends time and place.