# Spring

- By: Jean-Baptiste Pater (French, 1695–1736)
- Date: c. 1720–36
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Framed: 76.5 x 66 x 9 cm (30 1/8 x 26 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 65 x 53.7 cm (25 9/16 x 21 1/8 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Gift of Harry D. Kendrick
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1951.486)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1951.486/1951.486_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Spring and Summer are two scenes from a four-season series. These landscapes were originally a part of a screen or a decorative panel, indicated by their floral borders and oval shape. The setting of Spring is believed to be the grounds of Montmorency, the country estate of Pierre Crozat (1665–1740), a wealthy financier and art collector in early eighteenth-century Paris. Summer counters Spring's aristocratic leisure by depicting rural labor. Befitting the work's decorative origins, however, Pater's scene belongs to the tradition of the timeless pastoral. More idyllic than a statement about class differences, the reapers peacefully gather sheaves of wheat as shepherds rest with their flocks in the foreground.