The Haystacks

In the 1880s, Paul Gauguin made several extended trips to Brittany in western France, attracted by the region's remoteness and distinctive culture. This haymaking scene, captured during his third stay, is typical of the radically simplified approach he took to painting at this time. Forms are rendered as flat patches of vibrant colour, while three-dimensional relationships and perspective are deliberately ignored. Gauguin reduces the peasant women raking hay to the basic shapes of their black-and- white regional dress, presenting their actions as a timeless ritual.