Between 1940 and 1950, Candido Portinari received a series of commissions from the Brazilian government, constructing panels that depict national economic cycles for display in government buildings. In this period, he also created works depicting Brazilian export products, such as corn and coffee. In Colheita de arroz [Rice Harvest] (1957), Portinari portrays bodies poised to cut straw. He paints the subjects with great dignity, giving farm workers a heroic role and underscoring the survival of family farming during a period of economic growth and the industrialization of large cities. Colheita de arroz indicates a retreat from the social criticism present in his previous work, such as Retirantes [Migrants] (1944) and Criança morta [Dead Child] (1944), both part of MASP’s collection, in which Portinari highlighted the ills of economic development and the suffering of marginalized and poor Brazilians. The artist came to emphasize the vitality of communion in the activities of the rural working class, which he portrayed with vibrant colors: yellow, light brown and cream. Moreover, note the painting’s use of diagonal patterns to represent the felled straw, providing pace and movement to the composition. Such geometrization also appears on the bodies of workers and the design of the fencing and table where sickles for harvesting the crops rest; here, in horizontal and vertical lines. In the background we see the rest of the plantation, which will later be harvested. Note that Portinari produced Colheita de feijão [Bean Harvest] in the same year as Colheita de arroz; both panels were painted for the dining room of the modernist home of banker Homero Souza e Silva (1913–2003), which was designed by Carlos Leão (1906–1983) in 1956 in Rio de Janeiro.

— Guilherme Giufrida, assistant curator, MASP, 2018