The Haymakers

Stubbs's Haymakers from 1783, painted as a pendant to The Reapers, depicts another stage of the agricultural harvest cycle—the turning and gathering of cut hay before it is dried and stored—in a composition that gave him the same opportunity for the observation of human figures engaged in sustained physical labor that characterized his animal painting. The pendant format—two paintings of similar size and subject designed to hang together—was a standard commercial arrangement that allowed collectors to acquire a complete agricultural narrative. Stubbs's haymakers, like his reapers, demonstrate his commitment to observing the human figure with the same precision he brought to animal anatomy, and his agricultural paintings represent an important body of work alongside his equestrian subjects.

The hay-making scene is rendered with the same precision and luminosity as the companion Reapers. Stubbs's clear, cool palette and precise drawing give the pastoral subject a classical dignity that elevates it above mere genre painting.