This is manual, female labour. On a large, slightly sloping piece of land, under a rosy-coloured sky dotted with clouds, just before sunset, five peasant women are portrayed, from the foreground to the background: shoeless, with the characteristic long skirts and scarves on their heads, bent over or kneeling while gathering into wicker baskets the olives that have fallen onto a “solid field”, meaning land that is not cultivated by hoed to remove weeds and aid the harvest. Two of the olive trees are set at a distance: in the foreground, we find an even smaller tree that probably doesn't produce much fruit, unlike the larger one to the right, where three peasants are working. In the background to the left, two olive trees stand out with their small leaves against the sky, while immediately behind is the olive grove with the last two harvesters.
The olive harvest takes place in November in Tuscany. Until the early 20th century, the olives were harvested by gathering up the olives that fell to the ground. The method was then replaced by collecting the olives directly from the branches, allowing them to fall into large nets spread out at the feet of the trees. Today, the harvest is carried out using mechanical tools, such as electrical “olive shakers” or “vibrating pincers” for tractors. The olives were taken to the mill after harvest.
Here, the first operation was the “milling”, with large millstones that crushed the olives, or the “crushing” with large hammers that broke them, thus obtaining an oily paste. The “scutching ” then follows, i.e. a long mixing of the paste, which separates the oil from the watery part. Lastly, the oil is “cleaned” of its residue of skins and kernels. Although they are now carried out using machinery, the operations to extract the oil from the olives have basically stayed the same.
At the start of the 20th century, several companies in Livorno produced, sold and exported Tuscan olive oil: for example, the oil from the firm Enrico Ganni e C. received an award at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. The excellence of Tuscan oil is now recognised with quality labels such as P.D.O. And P.G.I.
[Taken from Work path, by Sara Bruni, in the Fattori Civic Museum in Livorno: works, paths, links. Guide to the educational project by Antonella Gioli, Sillabe s.r.l. Livorno, 2016]