The Plough and the Alfalfa: Reflections on rural idyll on contemplating Gauguin's Les Meules, Courtauld Gallery, London

Patricia Newbery

Brittany, 1889. Seven women stack hay with pitchforks, each in apron, white cap, full skirt, tight bodice over white blouse. In the foreground, a man leads away a pair of oxen to fetch another load. The yellow haystacks illuminate a scene full of movement, exude a sweet, woody smell. The soundscape: whispering hay, women's voices, birdsong; hoofbeats, harness, creak of cart.

Atlas Mountains, Morocco, 1990s. In a tiny field a man walks behind a plough drawn by a donkey. The plough is the type you'd see in a mediaeval manuscript or on a Greek vase. To say the man "walks" behind the plough is misleading: he barely moves forward as the donkey strains to pull and he struggles to keep the blade in the hard ground. 

When you turn back to the path, a heap of alfalfa has appeared. The lush green shivers and rustles as it comes towards you. You take a few steps, then stand aside to let it pass. From low down, a woman's voice thanks you, and you picture the right angle she must have bent herself into to carry her huge load.