Images of rural life in France are at the heart of Lhermitte’s artistic production. Throughout his career, he returned again and again to the theme of haymakers, gleaners, and the life of farmworkers at the end of the nineteenth century. Like many of his colleagues, Lhermitte strove to capture the agricultural traditions of the French countryside before they disappeared in the rush of industrialization and urban development.

from Weisberg, Breaking the Mold: The Legacy of the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of Nineteenth-Century French Art (Notre Dame, 2012)