Haymakers by the stream

The subject of the harvest preoccupied much of Clausen's artistic output in the years 1907-10. The artist took lodgings at Deer's Farm, Clavering for two to three weeks at a time over the course of each summer, cycling to favourite spots in the surrounding countryside to capture the harvesters at work.

The present work probably dates from this period, and bears a strong resemblance to The Rickyard: A Sunny Day, 1909 (Private Collection). Amongst the sixty paintings and drawings exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in May-June 1909 were a number of works depicting country lanes and sunny fields. 'Haystacks were seen as ghostly shapes against the sky, or glimpsed through the trees on the far side of a stream; the threshers and hoers continued in their takes until the light failed and farmyards fell silent.' (K. McConkey, George Clausen and the Picture of English Rural Life, Edinburgh, 2012, p. 154.) In his review in The Sunday Times, the critic Frank Rutter credited Clausen with 'painting with quiet joy what his heart prompts him to paint...' with a resulting 'freshness of treatment and oulook, and... a series of paintings which one day will be recognised as masterpieces.' (The Sunday Times, 2 May 1909).

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.