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©Pablo Picasso - 1907 The Harvesters

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From Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid :
Like other painters in his circle, Picasso was keen to find new techniques that would enable him to handle large compositions with numerous forms. His experiments produced four major canvases painted between 1906 and 1907: The Harem, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, The Peasants and The Harvesters. Whereas in the first two the characters are arranged within an enclosed space, suggesting sickness and degradation, in the last two the free movement of the figures within a rural environment suggests the opposite: health and harmony. In terms of form, the figures in The Harvesters are also more clearly seen as separate characters than Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, since Picasso was experimenting with an essentially two-dimensional approach. In this respect, there are obvious echoes of Matisse, although Picasso uses more strident colours.