The Scutching of Hemp

Hemp reached this stage of its life after months of handling. It was pulled in late summer, left to rot in standing water until the stalks loosened, then dried. What remains is the beating. The dry stalks are struck until the woody core inside shatters and falls away, leaving the long fibre that can be spun. It is cold-weather work, done indoors or in a yard, in a haze of dust, and in the Lombard countryside it was mostly done by women.

Filippini painted it in 1889. Scenes of farm labour had been a steady subject in Lombard painting for about twenty years by then, and he went back to them repeatedly in this part of his career, alongside the valleys and harbours he is better known for. The fibre being freed here went into rope, sacking, sailcloth and the coarse household cloth of the same farms that grew it.