At the shadoof

At the Shadoof (1901) depicts a traditional water-lifting device used in Polish rural areas, presenting the agricultural labourer's daily struggle with water as a subject worthy of serious artistic attention. Malczewski painted this alongside Reapers in 1901 as part of a sustained engagement with Polish peasant life. The shadoof — a counterweighted pole used since antiquity — gave him an opportunity to study the human figure in concentrated physical effort. All three 1901 works now in the National Museum in Warsaw show the artist moving between academic discipline and the symbolic weight he attached to rural labour.

The composition focuses on the muscular exertion of the figure operating the shadoof, with Malczewski using strong directional lighting to model the straining arms and torso. The background is kept deliberately spare, concentrating the viewer's attention on the human effort of drawing water.