oil on canvas, 91 x 143 cm, signed with initials at the bottom left, in brown, "M. Cl. C."

The work was created at the peak of Croatian modernism, in the period when local artists - educated in Munich and Vienna - turned to open-air painting and the combination of European currents, such as impressionism and secession, with authentic national motives. While Oton Iveković at that time builds national pride through historical compositions, and Ferdo Kovačević acts as a prominent representative of Croatian modernism who paints lyrical landscapes of the Sava River, Menci Clement Crnčić finds the true identity of the people in everyday life and the strength of the domestic man. This painting represents a smaller, study version in oil that Crnčić worked on in the studio as part of the preparations for a large and important order from 1904, intended for the decoration of the monumental newly built palace of the Croatian-Slavonic Mortgage Bank on Zrinjevac 7 (the building where the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs is located today). The scene brings a primal rural motif - a peasant driving a plow behind harnessed oxen, accompanied by a female figure in national costume. The characteristic oval format reflects the aesthetics of secession and precisely designed, organic integration of art into the representative architecture of that historic banking institution. Through the rich texture and vibrant morning light, Crnčić elevates painstaking hard work to a sublime, almost sacred ritual. In the context of the time, this depiction of untamed domestic land and tradition within a powerful financial institution carried strong patriotic symbolism.

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