Harvesting 1915

Zinaida Serebriakova made this painting, Harvesting, somewhere in Ukraine. Imagine her standing in the fields, squinting at the women, trying to capture them just so. The ochre ground and blue sky feel baked. It’s a scorcher! I wonder how long she spent on this picture. Did she have to keep coming back to the field? She must have, to get that light. Look at the women’s hands: the way she’s painted them tells you everything about their labour. It's heavy work. But there is a quiet intimacy about it. See how the colours of their clothes mirror the landscape? It's a very earthy palette. And she almost flattens the space, like on an early modernist canvas. I see echoes of Millet and Repin here, that tradition of social realism, but with a totally unique, female eye. And I bet they are still influencing artists today!