Focus on this artwork and explore the Reception.
Novelist Émile Zola highly praised Bastien-Lepage as the "grandson of Jean-François Millet and Gustave Courbet", and considered Haymaking as a masterpiece of naturalism in painting.Soviet art critic Nina Yarovskaya also praised this painting: "Les Foins is Bastien-Lepage's best painting. Exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1878, it is far from the idyllic interpretations of the peasant theme which characterizes several of his paintings. It faithfully depicts peasants lying exhausted from work under a scorching sun. The posture of the exhausted woman is very expressive with her hands lowered, her head slightly thrown back. The viewer feels the exhaustion of this woman and the efforts required to make the slightest movement."
Gustave Courbet Paris Salon Paris Jean-François Millet Émile Zola