Description:

Jan Bertrand Pegot-Ogier (1878-1915) was a French painter and a member of the Société des Artistes Français. He regularly exhibited in national salons. He was inspired by the style of Paul Gauguin. He was also associated with the Pont–Aven school, although he did not formally belong to it. The main themes in his work were Breton* scenes and landscapes.

Description of the painting:
The painting “Harvest in Brittany“ depicts a scene from the everyday life of a rural population. The composition can be divided into three planes. The first one features a girl in the background of a stubble field, occupying almost the entire right side of the image. She is shown in profile, sitting on a mowed part of the field. She is wearing a white shirt and a brown coat, with a blue apron over it, covering her legs. She has a white kerchief on her head. With her eyes slightly closed, she looks towards the lower left corner of the painting. On the second plane, at the right edge of the painting, a boy is shown. He is lying on the ground, in a shortened perspective, facing the viewer. He is dressed in a brown coat, similarly to the girl in the foreground. He has a straw hat on his head and his legs are bare. As if lost in thought, he looks towards the girl, observing her. On the third plane, in the left part of the painting, the outlines of people working can be seen. Three men and a woman, dressed in white shirts, are gathering the grain. The painting is framed by a row of trees growing at the edge of the field, and the blue sky visible between them.

The painting is painted with thick, vertical brush strokes that give it texture. The artist uses a narrowed palette of colors. Warm yellows, grays, and blues dominate. Through this combination of colors, one can almost feel the warmth of a summer day. The aerial perspective used in the piece makes it so that as the space moves away from the viewer, the outlines of the view and the figures become more and more blurred. Thus, the features of the girl‘s face in the foreground are clear, while the man in the background can only be seen as an outline. Despite its title “Harvest in Brittany“, one can get the impression that the main theme of the work is the budding relationship between two young people.