Long before it was common practice, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot painted en plein air ("in the open air"). He wished to paint as if seeing the outside world for the first time: “You must interpret nature naively and according to your own feeling, detaching yourself completely from what you know of the Old Masters or your contemporaries.” Corot likely painted Farm Scene near his parents’ home in Ville d’Avray, France. The action of two farmworkers provides a counterpoint to Corot’s harmonious composition of greens and browns.