‘What else can one do … but gaze upon the wheatfields. Their story is ours, for we who live on bread, are we not ourselves wheat to a considerable extent, at least ought we not to submit to growing, powerless to move, like a plant, relative to what our imagination sometimes desires, and to be reaped when we are ripe, as it is?’ Van Gogh.
The wheat harvest provided the family with bread for an entire year, but it was one of the most difficult agricultural tasks due to the high temperatures in June and the demanding physical labor. Both men and women participated, wearing lightweight and light-colored clothing to protect themselves from the heat and the thorns.
Men wore straw or paper hats and kerchiefs for sun protection, while women wore light-colored headscarves, often made of cotton, which they had prepared earlier. The main tool was the sickle, with auxiliary tools being worn to protect from thorns and injuries.
Before starting the harvest, the reapers would cross themselves and say prayers for a good crop. They used the sickle to cut and bind the ears of wheat into handfuls or more casually into bundles. Bundling followed the harvest and was also difficult, requiring the bundles to be uniform for easy transportation. The work became easier with the cooperation of many people through a system of workers swaps. The reapers would work under the hot sun all day till nightfall and converse or sing special harvest songs, trying to entertain their fatigue and have fun while working.
The wheat harvest after the reaping and binding of the sheaves, involved the gleaning and haymaking and after that, threshing and winnowing.
In this Thematic Exhibition you will find paintings, tools, drawings, etchings and photographs from harvests and wheat fields. For some artists in particular, the cycle from sowing to harvesting wheat – often represented by the figures of the sower and the reaper – was a metaphor, based on biblical parable, for life and death.
The exhibition contains items from the following institutions:
