In this extraordinary pair of panoramic paintings, Raymond Thibésart captures the spirit of rural life in France with a rare sense of harmony and grandeur. Painted at nearly three metres in width, these monumental canvases are immersive orchestrations of light and human connection to the land. They are monumental masterpieces of Post-Impressionism.

Thibésart conceived these paintings as a diptych and they have remained united since. Their compositional balance, a solitary figure in the act of ploughing in one and a communal gathering of harvesters in the other, reflects a dual meditation on perseverance and shared labour. Though painted decades after the height of French Realism, the influence of Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners is clearly felt in the bowed postures and frieze-like spacing of the figures in Scène de Cueillette. Yet where Millet emphasised weight and hardship, Thibésart brings air and light, transforming toil into poetry.

Both compositions unfold across the hills above Vaux-sur-Seine, the artist’s lifelong home northwest of Paris. Encouraged by his mentor Emilio Boggio, Thibésart settled there in 1903 and the elevated terrain became a central subject of his art.

Thibésart guides the eye across freshly turned earth toward a distant tree and village in Scène de Labour. The heavy shire horse and farmer form the painting’s steady pulse, with Thibésart’s trademark of a tree in blossom in the distance. In Scène de Cueillette, the figures move in a gentle rhythm across a sunlit slope, gathering crops under the heat of the midday sun. Together, the paintings evoke the cycles of rural life, from tilling to harvest.

Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian, Thibésart developed a Post-Impressionist style rooted in natural observation and quiet lyricism. His brushwork is confident yet restrained, with softened colours of pale greens, gentle pinks and powdered blues applied in a rhythm that mirrors the scenes themselves. His treatment of light, filtered and clear, reveals a debt to Corot and the Barbizon tradition, yet his vision remains unmistakably his own.

Thibésart’s mature paintings often began as en plein air pastels, later developed in the studio into larger oils. This dual approach lends the works both immediacy and refinement. Despite their scale, these two canvases retain a sense of spontaneity, the broad, sure strokes describing the figures and fields feel freshly observed, not overworked.

The sheer size, technical prowess and art historical significance makes them the most important works of Thibésart’s career and pivotal to early twentieth century French painting. They stand as a testament to the artist’s lifelong dedication to place, light and the quiet dignity of rural life.