Resting in the Field 1901

Edouard Debat-Ponsan painted this peaceful landscape, entitled 'Resting in the Field', with oils, sometime in the late 19th century. I really love the feeling of air and light. It's easy to imagine him outside on a summer day with his easel, trying to capture the feeling of warmth. I wonder if it was quick, this painting. The brushwork is so loose and open. Did he struggle with what to include, or did it all just flow? The figures feel both posed and naturalistic, as if they were arranged but also simply exist within the field. The cows seem to move and breathe, even as they rest in the grass. Perhaps Debat-Ponsan wanted to show how people and animals coexist peacefully within nature. Maybe this is a comment on the way of life at the time. All painters borrow from one another, whether they know it or not. Debat-Ponsan might have looked at Millet or Courbet for their own depictions of rural life. This painting feels like it's part of a long conversation about how we relate to the natural world, and each other.