RUPERT BUNNY Australian, 1864-1947

European Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours, Sotheby's, New York, 28 October 1986, lot 300

Important Paintings from the Collection of John Schaeffer AO, Sotheby's, Sydney, 25 August 2003, lot 2; purchased by the present owner 

Private collection, Western Australia

Bunny painted a number of rustic figure subjects set in the countryside of France, especially around Brittany and Picardy. For example, he showed Hay Boats, Brittany at the Royal Society of British Artists in the winter of 1901 and Harvest in Brittany at the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil, London, two years later. These and the present work, the result of summer holidays spent sketching and painting, show a sympathetic awareness of the rhythms and the cycles of nature.

The idea of designated rural activities, appropriate to the changing seasons, goes back to antiquity, as the classically-educated Bunny would have known well. It is also the basis for the exquisite French illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages that depict the 'Labours of the Months'. Harvest Time is, of course, a late summer task and Bunny has perfectly captured the golden heat haze and the repetitive manual labour of a long day in open fields.

The figure to the right (holding a staff and posed rather like a studio life model or a classical statue) provides a rest for the eye. Interestingly, Bunny returned to the theme years later in a series of mural designs based on seasonal farm work for Australia House in London, circa 1914 (now in the National Gallery of Australia).