FNetti

Rest in the Harvest, 1893-1894

Oil on canvas, cm 82x59,5

Santèramo in Colle, private collection

Giuseppe Protomastro saw it in rough-cut form and made in Santèramo. This work well represents the relationship that Netti holds with photography, particularly in these years. It stands as a real study for the final version of the possible painting, just as in this case. Resting in the harvest, in fact, is based on a photograph, now kept in a private collection, which is the image of a group of reapers positioned in a circle, sitting in the middle of the countryside. In the painting, Netti realizes a landscape and a description of the place, that are the same seen in the photograph, but strengthens the anecdotal moment: it melts the closed circle of workers, dividing them into three groups and adding the figure of the reaper who blows fire under the boiler, a figure that just does not derive from photography, engages him in numerous preparatory studies.