“Plowed Field” is an artwork by Edgar Degas, created approximately between 1880 and 1890. Employing pastel as his medium, Degas contributes to the Impressionist movement with this landscape genre piece. Currently part of a private collection, the artwork captures the bucolic tranquility characteristic of Impressionist landscapes.
The artwork presents the viewer with a serene pastoral scene dominated by the freshly turned soil of a plowed field. The earthy tones of the soil occupy the foreground, textured in a way that suggests the roughness of the terrain and the recent passage of plowing activity. Subtly gradated hues likely represent the variations of soil moisture and the play of light across the furrows.
A line of trees serves as demarcation, separating the field from the sky. These trees seem to stand as silent witnesses to the agricultural process, their canopies depicted with an assortment of greens and dark tones that suggest the foliage’s response to the winds or the changing seasons. Above the treetops, the sky is rendered with a lighter touch, with colors that may indicate either the soft light of dawn or dusk.
The Impressionist elements are evident in the loose, almost sketch-like quality of the trees and the way the pastel colors blend to capture the play of natural light, a hallmark of the movement. There is a palpable absence of human figures in the scene, which brings the viewer’s focus entirely to nature’s quiet moment, as rendered by Degas’s skilled hand. Overall, “Plowed Field” encapsulates the essence of the land’s interaction with light and atmosphere, hallmarks of Impressionist art.
