Catalogue Entry
Harvest Scene belonged to the engineer Desmond Fitzgerald (1846–1926), who became a friend of Claude Monet. In 1913, at the time he opened a museum in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, Fitzgerald was described in the Boston Transcript in 1913 as "an ardent collector of paintings and pottery and porcelain for many years," who packed his Brookline home with "choice works of art." He was also called "among the first American collectors to appreciate and buy the works of the French Impressionist school," and owned works by Monet and Boudin.[1]
This unlocated painting was described in the sale catalogue of Fitzgerald’s collection in 1927: “A composition presenting as the conspicuous objects of interest a group of five French poplar trees, in central middle distance, while beyond them at the left is low dark wood. In the middle distance some figures are seen, near a growth of brush, and occasional obstacles dot the foreground.” [2] An annotation in a copy of the sale catalogue, in which the work was illustrated, notes that it was purchased for $300.
[1] “The Fine Arts: Fitzgerald’s Museum,” Boston Transcript, May 28, 1913.