Frequently asked questions
Which size should I choose?
This work is available in 30 × 40 cm, 50 × 70 cm. As a guide: 30 × 40 cm (about 12 × 16 in) for shelves, corners or gallery walls; 50 × 70 cm (about 20 × 28 in) above a dresser, a headboard or a desk; 70 × 100 cm (about 28 × 39 in) as the centrepiece of a living room or the wall above the sofa. Below the buy buttons you can see it to scale above a 2-metre sofa.
Does it come framed?
The print arrives unframed with a white border, ready to frame. If you choose a black or oak frame, it arrives mounted behind acrylic glazing, ready to hang. Canvases come stretched on a wooden frame.
When will it arrive?
Printed to order at the lab closest to your address. It arrives in 4–8 working days in Spain and the EU, and in 6–12 working days in the US, Mexico and other destinations.
What if it arrives damaged?
Email us a photo within 30 days of delivery and we will send you a new one free of charge or refund you.
Can I send it as a gift?
Yes. At checkout you can write a gift message and ship it to the recipient's name and address. The parcel shows no prices.
About the work
- Artist
- Gustave Courbet
- Date
- 1854
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 131 × 167 cm
- Collection
- Musée d'Arts de Nantes
- Print up to
- 50 × 70 cm
- Reference
- XDV-1988
What the museum label doesn't tell you
Courbet paints three gestures that are, in truth, three eras of agricultural labour coexisting within the same barn. On the left, manual selection, grain by grain; in the centre, the age-old sieve, with that sweeping gesture that brings the whole painting to a halt; on the right, the tarare, the machine that was beginning to replace human hands. The models were the painter's own sisters, and the boy perhaps his son. Curiously, the canvas caused unease when exhibited in Nantes: neither fully traditional nor fully modern, with the figures barely looking at one another. Which gesture in the painting do you think is the one truly disappearing?
