The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Summer: Harvest Scene

Summer: Harvest Scene

designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s
manufacturer

possibly by Gobelins Manufactory

(France, Paris, est. 1662)
France
Wool, silk, and gold filé: tapestry weave
Overall: 254 x 255 cm (100 x 100 3/8 in.)
Gift of Francis Ginn, Marian Ginn Jones, Barbara Ginn Griesinger, and Alexander Ginn in memory of Frank Hadley Ginn and Cornelia Root Ginn 1952.544.2
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Images of the harvest provided a way to express pride in the fruitfulness and plenty of a particular region and celebrate the diligence of the field laborers.

Description

The wheat harvest took place in July and represented the hard, hot work of summer. The reaper in the foreground and his companion in the middle distance swing their scythes high above their heads as they prepare to cut the wheat stalks. Underneath the shade of an apple tree, three figures in the foreground are determining a price for the wheat. A woman gestures to the coins that the seated man is counting. Behind them another man holds an account book, in which he records their decisions. His pen holder and ink pot hang from his belt. In the distance to the right, two horses draw a cart piled high with wheat toward four farmers who gather bunches of wheat stalks together and tie them into bundles.
  • Balloch Castle, Scotland
    January 27-Febuary 3, 1923
    Henry Symons Sale: Anderson Galleries, New York, January 27-Febuary 3, 1923
    1923-1952
    Frank Hadley Ginn (1868-1938) and Cornelia Winifred Root Ginn (1877-1937), Cleveland, OH
    1952-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Scaturro, Jane and Hanson, Robin. “Cycles of Life: Celebrating the four seasons.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 62, no. 1: 18-21. Reproduced: P. 20; Mentioned: P. 18.
    Warwick House, Ltd, and Lucas. The Balloch Castle Seasons of Lucas; Being Four Gobelin Tapestries Rich with Gold, 8 Feet 2 Inches High, with Combined Width of 41 Feet 7 Inches, from Balloch Castle, Near Glasgow, Where They Hung for Nearly Two Centuries; a Companion Set to the Famous Months of Lucas, and by the Same Designer. Baltimore: N.T.A. Munder & Co., printers, 1918. archive.org
    Hunter, George Leland. "The Loan Exhibition of Tapestries." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 8/9 (October-November 1918): 63-87. 66 www.jstor.org
    Hunter, George Leland. Loan Exhibition of Tapestries. Assembled, Arranged and Catalogued by George Leland Hunter. Cleveland Museum of Art. October 5th December 1st 1918. archive.org
    Hunter, George Leland. “The Cleveland Tapestry Exhibition” in The Art World & Arts & Decoration (November 1918) 25-28. books.google.com
    Anderson Galleries, Inc. The Henry Symons Collections. New York: Anderson Galleries, 1923. no. 1167
    Freund, Karl. "Four Gobelin Tapestries," International Studio. (December 1924), 234-238.
    Crick-Kuntziger, Marthe, “L’énigme des ‘Mois de Lucas,’” Actes du XIIe Congrès international d’Histoire de l’Art. Volume 2. Brussels, 1930. 497-505.
    Ward, Evelyn Svec. "Four Seasons Tapestries from Gobelins." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 6 (1953): 113-19. 113-119 www.jstor.org
    Standen, Edith A. "Drawings for the "Months of Lucas" Tapestry Series." Master Drawings 9, no. 1 (1971): 3-80. www.jstor.org
    Standen, Edith Appleton. "Tapestries in the Collection of the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute," Carnegie Magazine. (December 1981), 3-19.

    Carnegie Institute, Carnegie Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Carnegie Magazine. Pittsburgh: The Institute, 1928. 2-7
    Standen, Edith Appleton. European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Museum, 1985. 322, 330
    Detroit Institute of Arts, Alan Phipps Darr, Tracey Albainy, and Melanie Holcomb. Woven Splendor: Five Centuries of European Tapestry in the Detroit Institute of Arts. [Detroit]: The Institute, 1996. 52-54
    Standen, Edith Appleton and Janet Arnold. "The Comte de Toulouse's 'Months of Lucas' Gobelins Tapestries: Sixteenth-Century Designs with Eighteenth-Century Additions," Metropolitan Museum Journal. (1996), 59-79. www.jstor.org
    Langeois, David, Daniel Alcouffe, Sandrine Riahi, and Musée Du Louvre. Quelques Chefs-D'oeuvre De La Collection Djahanguir Riahi : Ameublement Français Du Xviiie Siècle. Milano: Franco Maria Ricci, 1999. 66-8
    Mironneau, Paul. Musée national du Château de Pau. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003.
    Christies, Manson & Woods. Important Early European Furniture, Sculpture and Tapestries: Thursday 8 November 2007. London: Christie's, 2007. 122-129
    Cleveland Foundation. “Curating the Fine Art of Giving with the Frank Hadley Ginn & Cornelia Root Ginn Charitable Trust,”in Gift of Giving news for donors and friends of the Cleveland Foundation. Spring 2018. 4-5.
  • Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 13, 2022-February 19, 2023).
  • {{cite web|title=Summer: Harvest Scene|url=false|author=Gobelins Manufactory|year=designed c. 1535, woven mid- to late 1600s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1952.544.2