As a young man, Marc-Aurèle Fortin was sent by his father to work on a farm in Sainte-Thérèse as a punishment for his lack of interest in his schooling. Ironically, Fortin enjoyed the experience, and it cultivated in him a love of Quebec’s rural life that would forever stay with him. As François-Marc Gagnon wrote, it was the countryside “that provided the opportunity to find the purest form of the French-Canadian national character.”

Here Fortin depicts a farmhand carrying a scythe, heading to or returning from a day in the fields. As seen in the centrality of the housing, Fortin was compelled not only by the inhabitants of these villages but also by the character of the villages themselves, with their simple clapboard houses and sheltering elms. As with Fortin’s best examples, the bold, almost naive colouration in In the Village is contrasted by a stark use of off-white, heightening its impact. Additionally, as Fortin was an artist of extremely meagre means throughout his career, his use of canvas as a support was a rare occurrence, making it a notable element of this work.