October (painting)
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''October'' (French - ''Saison d'octobre'') is an 1878 painting by
Jules Bastien-Lepage Jules Bastien-Lepage (1 November 1848 – 10 December 1884) was a French painter closely associated with the beginning of naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement. His most famous work is his lan ...
, now in the
National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...
in Melbourne. It is also known as ''Picking Potatoes'' (''récolte des pommes de terre''), ''The Potato Gatherers'' or ''Woman Gathering Potatoes''. Bastien-Lepage painted it in his native village of
Damvillers Damvillers is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. See also * Communes of the Meuse department The following is a list of the 499 communes of the Meuse department of France. The communes cooperate in the f ...
, whose name is written in the work's lower-left corner just above the artist's signature. It was first exhibited at the 1879 Paris Salon and the Russian painter
Vasily Surikov Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (Russian: Василий Иванович Суриков; 24 January 1848 – 19 March 1916) was a Russian Realist history painter. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illus ...
saw it in Paris in December 1883, writing to his colleague Pavel Chistyakov at the end of that month: In 1885 (the year after the painter's death) it was acquired by his brother Émile Bastien-Lepage. Next it was acquired in 1897 by the Australian entrepreneur
George McCulloch George McCulloch (February 22, 1792 – April 6, 1861) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. George McCulloch was born in Maysville, Kentucky. Upon the death of his ...
, who had moved to London in the early 1890s and started collecting paintings. After McCulloch's death in 1907, the painting passed to his widow Mary Coutts Michie. In October 1927 the painting was acquired by the Australian Felton Bequest Foundation, based on funds bequeathed by
Alfred Felton Alfred Felton (8 November 1831 – 8 January 1904) was an Australian entrepreneur, art collector and philanthropist. Biography Alfred Felton was born at Maldon, Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, i ...
and in 1928 it was transferred to its present owner.


References

1878 paintings Paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria Paintings by Jules Bastien-Lepage Farming in art {{19C-painting-stub