Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Paris (no. 14964)
Montaignac (acquired from the above)
Charles Glover Jr., Washington (by 1952)
Berry-Hill Galleries, New York

Paris, Exposition des Pastellistes, 1891, no. 90 (as Moisson près de la ferme)
Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery, Privately owned: a selection of works of art from collections in the Washington area, February - March, 1952, no. 239 (lent by Charles Glover Jr.) 

Paul Bluysen, La Rèpublique française, April 4, 1891
"Petits Salons," Le Temps, April 5, 1891, n.p. 
New York Herald, April 6, 1891
Charles Fromentin, Le Jour, April 7, 1891
La Défense, April 9, 1891
Emile Cardon, Le Moniteur des arts, April 10, 1891
H. Dac, Le Monde, April 11, 1891
F.R., Queen, April 11, 1891
Victor de Saint-Cast, Le Conseiller des mères, April 15, 1891
D.H., Orient, April 16, 1891 (as les Faucheurs de blé)
Charles Fuinel, Notes d'Art, April 1891
Philadelphia Times, May 17, 1891
Frederic Lees, The Artist, 1898, p. 91
Mary Michele Hamel, A French Artist: Léon Lhermitte, Ph.D dissertation, Washington University, Saint Louis, 1974, p. C180, no. 177
Monique Le Pelley Fonteny, Léon Augustin Lhermitte: 1844-1925: Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1991, p. 169, no. 37, illustrated

The colors are bright and fresh, the pastel media appears to be largely undisturbed and well preserved with the paper slightly oxidized. The paper is lined with a layer of mulberry tissue for additional structural support and stability and there is a strip of paper tape along all four sides. There are three 3 inch long, diagonal repaired tears at the upper right corner which have been inpainted with pastel as well as a ½ inch spot at top center edge and a diagonal line at the bottom right corner. There is a 1/2 by 1/2 inch triangular tear at the top right edge and a 1 inch long tear is visible to the top edge about 10 inches from the right. In the margins and outside of the picture are small losses along the extreme bottom edge and at the bottom of the corner. The paper is hinged in six places, four across the top verso edge and once each on the verso sides down from the top edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Like Jean-François Millet, Léon-Augustin Lhermitte excelled in his handling of the pastel medium, and the virtuosity of his technique is brillitantly expressed in this 1891 work of two peasants cutting and gathering wheat.  Lhermitte's skill and versatility in his handling of the pastel crayon is perhaps best shown in the rendering of the landscape. Strong, confident sweeps of a yellow chalk convincingly convey the shifting tones of swaying stalks, only a small clearing yet made by the harvesters absorbed in their work.  

Vincent Van Gogh had a deep admiration of both Millet and Lhermitte.  As he recounts in his letters:  "For me that man [Lhermitte] is Millet the Second, in the full sense of the term; I adore his work as much as that of Millet himself.  I think his genius of the same order as that of Millet the First" (Letter to Anthon van Rappard, August 1885).  Several of Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo in 1885, also mention a series of prints depicting the months of the year (Les Mois Rustiques) that Lhermitte illustrated for the French magazine, Le Monde Illustré.  A different peasant theme accompanied each monthly issue, and in anticipation, Van Gogh repeatedly asked Theo to send him the most recent copies.  Van Gogh also commented to Theo that "tꦺhe peasants by Lhermitte...are so splendid just because of the life there is in tꦚhem"(Letter to Theo, 4 or 5 May, 1885).