This late 19th-century landscape by Marguerite de Lacombe (née Gamelin, 1876–1960) offers a tender view of rural life near Rouen. Painted with a quiet sensitivity characteristic of her early career, the scene presents a trio of women gathering hay along a gentle, winding path, with a male fieldworker faintly visible in the distance. The land is full, warm, and softly expressive - a pastoral moment observed with both accuracy and kindness.
Two women occupy the centre of the composition, engaged in the rhythmic work of lifting and binding hay. Their gestures are natural and unforced, shaped by habit rather than theatrics, while a third woman approaches from the right, stepping into the glow of afternoon light. One senses not hardship but companionship - the kind of modest, unspoken conversation that threads through shared labour.
The framing trees, including a beautifully rendered birch on the right, gather around them like a protective canopy, opening just enough to reveal the distant silhouette of Rouen. The town lies quiet on the horizon, softened by atmospheric haze, a reminder of the broader world beyond these intimate fields.
Lacombe’s handling is both confident and restrained. She balances the darker mass of foliage on the left with the pale vertical lift of the birch, guiding the eye toward the workers and then outward to the distant city. Her palette is warm but never heavy, her touch steady, and her composition anchored in the academic naturalism taught within the Société des Artistes Français - of which she became a member at only eighteen. The painting’s calm expressiveness reflects an artist who observed rural life with respect, patience, and a genuine interest in its human rhythms.
Born in Paris and trained within private studios before the École des Beaux-Arts admitted women, Marguerite Gamelin, later Madame de Lacombe, achieved early professional success. She exhibited at the Salon and was recognised by the Société des Artistes Français, placing her among the promising female painters of the 1890s.
In 1898, she married Pierre Gaston de Lacombe, a rising artillery officer, and her artistic presence thereafter grew quieter, though she continued to produce landscapes and figure studies of notable refinement. Works recorded at auction in 1905 confirm her continued artistic activity during the early 20th century.
Within her surviving oeuvre, this painting is especially evocative. It reflects her instinct for scenes of rural companionship, her eye for gentle narrative, and her understanding of the countryside not as spectacle but as lived experience. It speaks of the land’s quiet labours and the everyday dignity of those who tended it.
Signed and inscribed in the lower right. Held in a 19th-century gilt and composition frame with pierced corners and foliate ornament.
Learn more about Marguerite de Lacombe in our directory.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 52” x 36½” / 132cm x 93cm
Year of creation: c. 1895
Labels & Inscriptions: Frost & Reed gallery label on the reverse, plus a label with the artist's name and short bio.
Provenance: With Frost & Reed, London / Private collection, UK.
Condition: Cleaned. Areas of fine and settled craquelure, as you would expect. The paint layer is stable. Frame in good condition with minor age-related wear.
Our reference: BRV2245
