This painting depicts a rural scene with people gathered in front of log cabins. Hills, sparse trees, and a haystack are visible in the background under a partly cloudy sky. In the distance on the left, two people stand on a pile of logs, a small fire breaking out on the far left and putting gray smoke in the air. Closer to us on the left, a man stands by a machine made of several horizontal rods, appearing to feed long strands of fiber or grain into it. Gathered in a line across the rest of the painting is a crowd of men and women, appearing to hold long, flat objects and bundles of thin fiber. Some of the people talk while others seem to dance. The people all have pale skin, and the women wear colorful dresses with aprons and bonnets, while the men wear jackets, vests, and top hats.

Flax Scutching Bee

Linton Park

This painting depicts a rural scene with people gathered in front of log cabins. Hills, sparse trees, and a haystack are visible in the background under a partly cloudy sky. In the distance on the left, two people stand on a pile of logs, a small fire breaking out on the far left and putting gray smoke in the air. Closer to us on the left, a man stands by a machine made of several horizontal rods, appearing to feed long strands of fiber or grain into it. Gathered in a line across the rest of the painting is a crowd of men and women, appearing to hold long, flat objects and bundles of thin fiber. Some of the people talk while others seem to dance. The people all have pale skin, and the women wear colorful dresses with aprons and bonnets, while the men wear jackets, vests, and top hats.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Linton Park
Date
1885
Medium
oil on bed ticking
Dimensions
overall: 80 x 128.3 cm (31 1/2 x 50 1/2 in.) framed: 90.5 x 139.1 x 4.4 cm (35 5/8 x 54 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
Department
CAB
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

Select a color to find related artworks.

Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Art Genome Taxonomy

10 tags

Subject Matter

  • Rural Life Visual · 99%

    The image shows log cabins, open ground, fences, timber, a haystack, hills, and scattered trees in a rural settlement.

  • Scenes of Everyday Life Visual · 94%

    The painting presents an outdoor community scene with buildings, tools, household activity, and numerous people engaged in varied actions.

  • Work and Workers Both · 97%

    The catalog describes flax-processing activity, and the image shows a machine, long implements, bundles, and figures engaged in coordinated manual work.

  • Parties and Celebrations Both · 92%

    The title and catalog describe a flax-scutching bee, while several foreground figures appear to dance, converse, or gesture within the group gathering.

Visual Qualities

  • Dense Composition Visual · 88%

    The foreground contains a large, closely arranged group of figures, tools, timber, and activity, creating a crowded lower register within the broad landscape.

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Visual · 93%

    Saturated blue, red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple garments provide strong accents against the muted browns, grays, and greens of the setting.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting.

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The catalog identifies the medium as oil on bed ticking.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The work is dated 1885, placing it in the nineteenth century.

Textiles

  • Use of Fabric Metadata · 97%

    The support is identified as bed ticking, a woven fabric, beneath the oil paint.

Source & rights

Linton Park. Flax Scutching Bee. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

Related

Loading related artworks…