The Real Country: Summary and contents
In the centuries before photography came into widespread use, artists recorded landscapes and life in the countryside in paint. This series looks at the reality of life and work in the country using some of its finest paintings.
From 1500, when about 80% of Europe lived in the country and worked in agriculture, to 1900, when 80% lived and worked in cities and towns. During the nineteenth century, it was supposed that those in the country were poor and disadvantaged compared to those in urban areas, but was that accurate, and how did it change?
Soil quality as the key to growing crops. Fertiliser came as dung from livestock, particularly sheep. The best way to prepare the soil to give the highest crop yields was by ploughing it repeatedly. This would also build the soil into ridges to drain water into furrows. Improvements in plough design.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569), Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (copy of original from c 1558)(detail), oil on canvas mounted on wood, 73.5 × 112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. Wikimedia Commons.
Preparing the soil by removing stones. Sowing seed using broadcasting by hand, returning low yields compared to modern seed drills. Probably painted for longer than broadcasting remained in common use. Need for back-breaking weeding to allow crops to grow.
Hans Andersen Brendekilde (1857–1942), A Sower on a Sunny Spring Day at Brendekilde Church (1914), oil on canvas, 49 x 76 cm, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.
Different tools in use, including handheld sickle and hooks, and heavy scythes for mowing. Each used for different crops, and whether the straw was to be used as well. Cut grain formed into stooks to dry for removal.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569), The Harvesters (1565), oil on panel, 119 x 162 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.
Long-established and widespread ‘right’ of access to collect and remove the remains after the harvest had been cut. Although seen as the work of the poor, it was common among all, particularly women, as free food that would otherwise be wasted. It could also provide large amounts of grain in return for a few days work.
Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925), Gleaning Women (1920), oil on canvas, 65.4 x 81.2 cm, National Museum of Western Art 国立西洋美術館 (Kokuritsu seiyō bijutsukan), Tokyo, Japan. Wikimedia Commons.
5 Threshing and processing grain
How harvested cereal is separated into grain, stems of straw, husk and other chaff. Increasing use of animals, first to thresh the grain from the cereal, then to power mechanical threshing machines. Some grain stored on the stem in grainstacks, as painted by Monet and others.
Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909), Threshing in the Abruzzi (1890), oil on canvas, 58 x 98.5 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst (Den Kongelige Malerisamling), Copenhagen, Denmark. Wikimedia Commons.
The use of wind and water power to grind grain into flour, in windmills and watermills.
John Constable (1776–1837), Parham Mill, Gillingham (c 1826), oil on canvas, 50.2 x 60.3 cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. Wikimedia Commons.
Folding of sheep overnight so their dung would fertilise land growing crops, in the sheep-corn pattern of farming. Sheep as a replacement for humans in land clearances, especially in Scottish Highlands.
Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), The Sheepfold, Moonlight (1856-60), oil on panel, dimensions not known, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD. Wikimedia Commons.
Crops grown mainly for sale, including buckwheat, sainfoin, flax for linseed oil and linen, madder for dyes and pigments, and clover to increase soil fertility.
Fritz Overbeck (1869–1909), Buckwheat Fields at Weyerberg (c 1897), further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.
Annual cycles of crops and land left fallow to preserve fertility of the soil. Two-year rotation in southern Europe, three and four in the north. Reflected in the patterns of fields seen in paintings.
Alexandre Calame (1810–1864), Swiss Landscape (c 1830), oil on paper mounted on canvas, 40 × 52 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Wikimedia Commons.
Cattle raised for drawing carts and ploughs, milk, meat and hide, often in areas less suitable for arable production, and woodlands. Twice-daily milking by milkmaids out in the fields. Milk manufactured into cheese, butter, and more. Cattle only in sheds in harsher winters. Often driven long distances to market on drovers’ roads.
Gerard ter Borch (1617–1681), A Maid Milking a Cow in a Barn (c 1652-54), oil on panel, dimensions not known, The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA. Wikimedia Commons.
Dried grass for animal fodder, harvested early in the summer, and sometimes later too. Mown using heavy scythes, dried in stacks or cocks, then into larger haystacks and baled for transport. Sold to supply working horses in towns and cities.
Mykola Pymonenko (1862–1912), Haymaking (date not known), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Fine Arts Museum Kharkiv Харківський художній музей, Kharkiv, Ukraine. Wikimedia Commons.
Increasingly important as a staple crop in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, often in gardens and smallholdings. Diseased by blight, resulting in famines and millions of deaths when crop failed, in Ireland and Scotland.
Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884), October: Potato Gatherers (1878), oil on canvas, 180.7 x 196 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Wikimedia Commons.
Originally for farmers to sell surplus to consumers without merchants or middlemen. In nineteenth century taken over by dealers and merchants for their profit. Specialist markets for grain, fruit and vegetables, in major cities.
Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925), Les Halles (1895), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Petit Palais, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.
Mostly self-help, but specialist trades including blacksmith, metal forges, tinker to repair pots and pans.
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), Forge at Marly-le-Roi (1875), oil on canvas, 55 x 73.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. EHN & DIJ Oakley.
Ploughing after autumn harvest, Spring sowing, calving, haymaking, harvest. Arable farming labour-intensive year-round, cattle less so and accommodating crafts and sidelines.
Evelyn De Morgan (1855–1919), The Cadence of Autumn (1905), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, The De Morgan Centre, Guildford, Surrey, England. Wikimedia Commons.
Drainage of land for improvement, mechanisation using steam then internal combustion engines, railways for transport of produce.
Heinrich Vogeler (1872–1942), Farmer Ploughing (c 1930-42), oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, location not known. Wikimedia Commons.
Many paintings and photos are carefully posed and can mislead.
Max Liebermann (1847–1935), The Preserve Makers (1879), oil on mahogany wood, 49 × 65.3 cm, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.
Many living in the countryside worked hard but enjoyed their rural life and surroundings.
Mykola Kuznetsov (1850-1929), In Celebration (1879-81), oil on canvas, 55 x 98 cm, Tretyakov Gallery Государственная Третьяковская галерея, Moscow, Russia. Wikimedia Commons.
