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Rural labor scenes like this image of resting farmers showcase Senpan's deep connection to the Japanese countryside. His work from the 1930s and 1940s is considered his strongest period, with those impressions commanding the highest prices. Numbered editions with early numbering (low numbers out of 30-80) are especially desirable. Typical range: $400-$1,200.
Farmers rest in the shade — hats off, work tools set aside, the posture of people whose exhaustion is entirely physical and entirely deserved — in this circa-1932 Senpan composition. Rural labor subjects were important to the [sosaku-hanga](/glossary/sosaku-hanga) movement's project of depicting ordinary Japanese life without romanticizing or aestheticizing its hardship, and Senpan's farmers at rest bring the same direct figural attention to agricultural workers that he brought to festival participants and bathers. The rest is not picturesque — it is earned.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Farmers at Rest (休む農夫たち) was created by Maekawa Senpan (前川千帆) in c. 1932.
Farmers at Rest depicts figures, daily life, and village scenes.
