La récolte, like so many of Jules Breton’s oil sketches, is remarkable in its vitality, the artist's signature suggesting his own satisfaction with the preparatory work. In a composition divided by a wide band of golden field and pale sky, the shadowed fieldworkers stand out; the quick brushwork defines the athletic work of the harvesters, who bend low to the ground, opening their arms wide to gather dried stalks and bracing the body as tall stacks of grain are formed. While Breton captured the harvest in a number of finished oils, it has yet to be determined if the present sketch informed a specific work. However, it is possible La récolte may have been used toward the painting of Breton's Moisson exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1867 (the painting's current location is unknown and no visual and few written accounts remain of it).
[Sotheby’s, New York - Oil on canvas, 30 x 49 cm]