The Four Seasons: Autumn

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Depictions of the four seasons in the early modern period often emphasized timeless agrarian seasonal activities. In this image of autumn, however, Abraham Bosse portrayed instead a group of middle-class people in contemporary costume. The men and women appear not as laborers bringing in the crops, but as drinkers sampling the harvest. As urban dwellers invading a rural space, they make a mess of it, overturning the table, drawing the sword, and tussling in the shadows—all indicators of taking too much liberty with the “new wine” ( du vin nouveau ). Like the figures in this composition, Bosse himself had little interest in following the rules. In 1661, he was expelled from the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture due to his controversial teachings.