the harvesters pieter bruegel

(detail) Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565, oil on wood (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Harvesters: peasants and landscape. Of all Bruegel’s seasonal paintings, this one combines these two to greatest effect. This landscape is impossible without these people, Bruegel seems to say, just as the people are impossible without this place. Each gives the other function and meaning.

As in many of Breughel’s paintings, the focus is on peasants and their work. Notably, some of the peasants are shown eating while others are harvesting wheat, a diachronic (relating to phenomena such as ideas, language, or culture, as they occur or change over a period of time) depiction of both the production and consumption of food. Pears can be seen on the white cloth in front of the upright sitting woman who eats bread and cheese while a figure in the tree to the far right picks pears.
This painting and the rest from the series is groundbreaking in the history of Western art. The religious pretext for landscape painting has been suppressed in favor of a new humanism, and Bruegel’s unidealized description of the local scene is based on natural observations.

In 1919 The Harvesters Painting was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is considered to be one of their most important pieces.
The viewer’s eye is drawn down two main routes in this image. Following the women carrying the bundles of corn, the viewer is led towards the noble’s castle in the distance.

Cathy FitzGerald takes a walk through the landscape and then hears how the masterpiece may have brightened up a wealthy Antwerp merchant’s dinner parties.
In this first episode, immerse yourself in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s masterpiece The Harvesters, in the company of Cathy FitzGerald and experts from the artist’s Flemish homeland. Follow the link to explore a high-resolution image of the painting and you’ll be able to zoom in to see the tiniest details as you listen – even examine Bruegel’s brushstrokes.

The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It depicts the harvest time which most commonly occurred within the months of August and September. Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp, commissioned this painting.
The painting is one in a series of six works, five of which are still extant, that depict different times of the year. As in many of his paintings, the focus is on peasants and their work. Notably, some of the peasants are shown eating while others are harvesting wheat, a diachronic (relating to phenomena such as ideas, language, or culture, as they occur or change over a period of time) depiction of both the production and consumption of food. Pears can be seen on the white cloth in front of the upright sitting woman who eats bread and cheese while a figure in the tree to the far right picks pears. The painting shows a large number of activities representative of the 16th-century Belgian rural life. For example, on the far right a person is shaking apples from the tree. In the center left of the painting, a group of villagers can be seen participating in the blood sport of cock throwing.

Resources:

http://www.dailyartmagazine.com/pieter-bruegel-elder-harvesters/
http://www.pieterbruegel.org/harvesters/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w9jg5
http://www.wikiart.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/the-harvesters-july-august-1565
http://www.openculture.com/2017/08/14-self-portraits-show-the-evolution-of-pablo-picassos-style.html