The four times of day- Evening 1757

Claude-Joseph Vernet painted "The Four Times of Day- Evening" during a time when the French aristocracy had a romantic vision of rural life. This landscape isn't a mirror of reality; rather, it invites us to consider the gendered and class dynamics at play. The women in the painting, draped in classical robes, seem to exist outside the demands of labor, yet their presence is undeniably tied to it. They are staged within the pastoral idyll as if to suggest a kind of timelessness. Are these figures simply ornamental, or do they point to the complex ways in which women’s bodies have been historically placed in relation to nature and leisure? "The Four Times of Day- Evening" evokes an emotional longing for a simpler, perhaps idealized existence. It also subtly challenges us to reflect on whose labor sustains such idyllic visions.