Further images
Painted in a large-scale format, our young worker stands as a towering presence, becoming one with the golden wheat fields and summer wildflowers that surround her. She represents the perfect ideal of the French rural class, always stoic, always noble and always a reflection of the beauty of the natural world in which they inhabit.
Provenance
Boussod Valadon & Co., Paris
Knoedler & Co., New York (acquired from the above, 30 September 1887 for 5000 francs, no. 5907 as Girl in Harvest Field)
A.T. Goshron, Cinncinati, Ohio (acquired from the above 20 December 1888 for $1,400)
M. Knoedler & Co., New York (returned for credit from the above, 1 February 1889, no. 6253 as Across the Fields)
R. L. Cutler, Brooklyn, New York (acquired from the above, 7 February 1889 for $1,350)
Private collection, Santa Barbara
Sale: Butterfield & Butterfield, San Francisco, 11 June 1987, lot 2614
Private collection
Literature
“Choosing Art for a French Country Chic Home,” in Mansion Global, 2019
Catalogue note
The tonal palette of soft gold and ochre set this pastoral subject by Daniel Ridgeway Knight apart from the somewhat formulaic paintings we typically associate with his art. The simplicity of the composition with the vertical stalks of wheat, the perfectly centered figure of the young peasant and the diagonal line of the pitchfork and rake match the subtle sophistication of the color scheme. Because of these characteristics, this painting has a greater affinity to the works of Jules Breton and Léon Lhermitte, and even to Jean François Millet, although Ridgeway Knight considered Millet’s realistic depiction of the French peasant too harsh in its interpretation, preferring to show his pastoral subjects “merry in their hours of toil.” (as quoted in R.B. Knight, Ridgway Knight: A Master of the Pastoral Genre, exh. cat., Johnson Art Museum, Cornell University, 1989, p. 7).
Painted in a large-scale format, our young worker stands as a towering presence, becoming one with the golden wheat fields and summer wildflowers that surround her. She represents the perfect ideal of the French rural class, always stoic, always noble and always a reflection of the beauty of the natural world in which they inhabit.