Joseph Mallord William TurnerCassiobury Park: Reaping c.1807

This rural setting is the Cassiobury estate, on the River Gade just outside Watford in Hertfordshire. Its house, seen on the horizon, was demolished in 1927. Men and women are shown reaping by hand; a sickle lies near one of the resting figures on the left. Cassiobury was the home of the Earl of Essex, for whom this unfinished painting was probably intended along with its companion piece, the Harvest Home. As such the imagery of man and nature is more harmonious and timeless than the potentially troubled scene of the turnip harvest near Windsor shown nearby.