The Potato Harvest 1877

Editor: This is Charles Samuel Keene's graphite drawing, *The Potato Harvest*, created in 1877. It has an almost dreamlike quality due to its hazy figures and the subtle use of light and shadow. What do you see in this piece, particularly considering its title? Curator: It’s interesting that Keene titled it "The Potato Harvest", yet the scene seems more focused on spectators, perhaps admiring an exhibit or performance. The top hats are a significant cultural marker. What do they signify to you? Editor: I immediately think of wealth and status. Everyone seems very formal. Curator: Exactly! Consider that the potato, though a staple crop, often symbolizes sustenance and the everyday struggles of common folk. By juxtaposing the working-class crop and these affluent onlookers, Keene invites us to contemplate the different layers of society and the symbolic weight we assign to class and labour. It is all here—history, commerce, performance... Editor: So, the work hints at social commentary despite its casual appearance? Curator: Precisely. The ghostly image behind the figures within the framed room indicates people performing some task and so these bystanders and those actually laboring or in stark contrast with each other. And even now it asks: What is worth watching? Whose life is worth the performance? Editor: I hadn’t thought about that before. The layering of the figures within figures presents a complicated relationship. It really provides so much to consider beyond the first impression. Curator: Yes! Seeing the work with fresh eyes changes our cultural and political views as our times and our culture change. We read it in different ways as different cultures, peoples, ideas mix to view them, over time!