From Mowing - Pyotr Konchalovsky

A 1940 oil painting by Pyotr Konchalovsky depicting a group of rural workers returning from the fields with their tools.

Pyotr Konchalovsky, a founding member of the Jack of Diamonds group, underwent a stylistic shift throughout his career. While his early work engaged with Fauvism and Cézanne, his later output, including this piece from 1940, reflects the aesthetic requirements of the Soviet era. 'From Mowing' depicts a group of women returning from agricultural labour, carrying scythes and rakes across their shoulders. The composition is structured as a rhythmic procession, moving from left to right across the canvas. A small child walks alongside the group, linking the figures to the rural setting. The palette consists of earthy greens, ochres, and muted reds, capturing the atmosphere of a summer day in the countryside. Konchalovsky employs visible, textured brushwork that retains a sense of his earlier modernist training, even while the subject matter aligns with the thematic focus on collective work and rural life common in the mid-twentieth century. The dense foliage in the background provides a dark, verdant screen that pushes the figures into the foreground, creating a clear separation between the workers and the natural environment. The light is diffuse, suggesting an overcast sky, which softens the shadows and allows the colours of the clothing to remain distinct. This work demonstrates the artist's ability to balance the demands of official art with his own painterly interests in form and colour. It remains a record of the rural life he observed during his time spent in the Russian provinces, where he frequently sought subjects that allowed him to explore the relationship between the human figure and the natural world.