Summer (Peasants Harvesting Wheat), from The Four Seasons
c. 1595
Medium
Engraving on laid paper
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 20.1 × 14.4 cm (7 15/16 × 5 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
267804
Art Historical Context
Jan Saenredam’s *Summer (Peasants Harvesting Wheat)*, created around 1595, is a captivating engraving from his *The Four Seasons* series. As a leading Dutch printmaker of the late Renaissance, Saenredam specialized in intricate reproductive engravings, often after designs by masters like Hendrick Goltzius. This sheet, trimmed to 20.1 × 14.4 cm and printed on laid paper, captures the bustling energy of rural life during the harvest, with peasants laboring under a vast sky—a nod to the cyclical rhythms of nature and agrarian toil in the Netherlands. Engraving allowed Saenredam to achieve remark...
About the Artist
Jan Saenredam · 1565–1607
Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam (c. 1565–1607) emerged from humble beginnings in the Dutch village of Assendelft, where he was orphaned young and raised by his uncle, the local bailiff Pieter de Jongh. Initially destined for basket weaving or farm work, Saenredam's precocious talent for embellishing texts with intricate designs caught attention, leading to an apprenticeship in cartography. By 1589, at a...