Untitled (Work in the Fields) c. 1930

This untitled work on paper by Joseph John Paul Meert presents a field with workers in the middle of a harvest. I wonder what it was like for Meert to stand in that field, watching the workers, absorbing the scene, and then trying to capture it all on paper with graphite – the meticulous shading, the hatching, and cross-hatching bringing the scene to life. I bet he wanted to make it look both real and a little dreamy. There's a rhythmic quality to the marks, a sense of movement as the workers bend and gather. It's like you can almost feel the heat of the sun and the weight of the harvest. The softness of the graphite gives everything a gentle quality, but the sharp details make it feel urgent and real.