Ploughing is an example of the works painted by Wyczółkowski in the 1890s in Ukraine that are most reminiscent of French Impressionism. The genre motif represented here is in fact a pure study of colour and light, showing the effect of eliminating the so-called local colours under the influence of the rays of sunshine. By using mainly pure colours observed in the spectrum analysis of the ray of light and the method of visual melange (involving the application of tiny dabs of colour close to each other merging into one in the viewer’s eye), the painter achieved the effects similar to the contemporary discoveries in the fields of optics, psychophysiology of vision and colour theory. However, in contrast with one of the fundamental principles of Impressionism expecting artists to capture the fleeting effects of nature by painting alla prima, the artist produced this work in the atelier, based on studies done in the open air.

Wacława Milewska