Hoache

A ‘hoach’ is a historical plough without wheels. It was used on the Hauberg, a farming system organised as a cooperative that was characteristic of the Siegerland region. Over a cycle of around 18 years, mixed coppice, field and pasture farming was carried out manually in this way. The painting in portrait format by Adolf Sänger shows a scene of field work. The artist dabs his colours, which renders the contours softer. Our view is of a reddish-brown, earthy hill, the trees of which have already been felled. Only at the very top of the hill can dense rows of trees in shady green still be seen. Corn is being sown on the bare ground of the slope and ploughed under the surface using the ‘hoach’. Two hatted men stand in the picture’s foreground, leading a cow. Their violet-coloured upper bodies stand out from the rest of the picture. Behind the men are four country women, each wearing a head scarf. Behind them, other people in three rows on the slope each lead a cow, which pulls the ‘hoach’ across the forest floor. Most of the cattle are depicted in a luminous crimson red.