Pierre-Auguste Renoir – The Harvesters

The Harvesters – a summer field from the early years

The Harvesters is an oil painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1873. The original measures 74 cm x 60 cm and is in a private holding in Switzerland. We paint our version by hand in oils on canvas, in eight landscape sizes running from 50 x 40 all the way up to 150 x 120 cm. Among them is 74 x 60 cm, exactly the measurement of the original, with 110 x 90 cm for a larger wall.

What we hold about this canvas, and what we do not

The title names people at work in a field, but about the scene itself – how they are placed, what they carry, how the field is painted – our record holds no description, and we do not add one here. What we do hold is of a different kind, and concerns when the canvas was made: in the early years of his career Renoir gave much of his time to landscape, and it was there, where the arrangement of human figures did not tie him down, that he tested light, colour, form and the brushstroke most directly. This canvas belongs to that period.

Why hand-painted, not a print

Our version is not a print. A summer field is a surface of small, repeated strokes that separate from close to and merge from a distance, and it is exactly that double reading a print loses: the screen has a regular pattern of its own that lies over the pattern of the ears of corn and cancels it. A hand-painted canvas has an uneven stroke instead, so the field stays made of individual touches from close to and becomes a field again from a distance.

In the room

The subject is horizontal, quiet and open, with no single point pulling the eye, so it works well in a shared room: above the sofa, above a sideboard, or in a dining room. For an ordinary room we suggest 74 x 60 cm, the measurement of the original, or 90 x 75 cm. On a large wall 130 x 105 or 150 x 120 cm works, where the field opens out and the scene comes to resemble a view. The smallest sizes, 50 x 40 and 60 x 50 cm, suit a hallway or an office.

What you receive

We paint the canvas to order, by hand and for you alone, so every copy is made on its own; the canvas is usually painted and dried within three to four weeks. If you prefer, we will paint it in a size that is not on the list. Before despatch we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for your approval, and only then does the painting go out. The Harvesters arrives stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang, wrapped in protective film and in rigid packaging, with no further stretching or finishing needed.

• Subject: summer field with harvesters, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, stretched on a wooden frame
• Sizes: 8 sizes, from 50 x 40 cm to 150 x 120 cm, another size on request
• Detail worth knowing: the canvas is from the early years, when Renoir went at light, colour and the stroke most directly in landscape

See also:

• The Skiff
• The Wave
• A Clearing in the Woods