The Harvesters is an
oil painting on wood completed by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It was commissioned by
Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp. Depicting the harvest, in July, August or late summer, the painting is one in a series of six works representing different times of the year. As in many of his paintings, the focus is on peasants and their work and does not have the religious themes common in landscape works of the time. The painting is in the permanent collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which has described it as a "watershed in the history of Western art".
Painting: Pieter Bruegel the Elder