This romantic watercolour was made by Richard Westall and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800. The composition is one of Westall’s most perfect Romantic images: the solitary travelling harvester stands within the extensive landscape, reminiscent of the Lake District, holding a sickle, the image of which is mirrored by the moon. Westall also treated this subject in a small, less finished watercolour, The Reaper (The Harvest Moon), depicting a reaper and his dog walking under a harvest moon, now at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
In 1814 Richard Westall held an exhibition numbering some three hundred and twelve of his own works, which serves to underline the prominent and popular position he held in the London art world of the period. Amongst the many distinguished lenders were Richard Payne Knight, Lord Byron, Thomas Hope, Samuel Rogers, and the Prince Regent. It is possible that Benjamin Godfrey Windus, the eminent watercolour collector, was an early owner of this watercolour.
Throughout the 1820s Westall was in constant demand by publishers who wanted him to supply drawings and watercolours which could be engraved for the Annuals and illustrated editions of poetry that were so popular. He became one of the most prolific illustrators of poetry of the period.
