Work and Labor Scenes

Genre paintings depicting people performing manual or agricultural labor: gleaning or harvesting a field, fishing, working a trade or craft, or another task performed as an occupation rather than a domestic chore or a leisure activity. This group gathers the rural and laboring-class subjects that became a defining subject of nineteenth century Realism and its successors, distinguishing paid or productive outdoor and workshop labor from the unpaid household activity gathered under Domestic and Household Scenes and from voluntary recreation gathered under Leisure and Entertainment Scenes.