The Reapers
First Floor:
- Mrs. Benjamin N. Duke (painting)
- Benjamin N. Duke (painting)
- Tending The Flock (painting)
- Beach Scene (painting)
- Mary L. Duke (painting)
- Angier B. Duke (painting)
- William K. Boyd (painting)
- Thomas J. Jarvis (painting)
- Washington Duke (painting)
- Duke University in Picture (book)
- Bessie Whitted Spence (painting)
- Benjamin N. Duke (painting)
- James H. Southgate (painting)
- Grand Master Clock
- Eva Earnshaw Malone (painting)
- Benjamin N. Duke (marble bust)
- Library Table
Second Floor:
- James A. Thomas and Two Eunuchs (photograph)
- Dorothy Quincy Hancock Read (photograph)
- Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek (photograph)
- Sarah P. Duke (painting)
- Mary Duke Lyon (painting)
- The Reapers (painting)
- Marble Lions (statues)
Thomas Room:
- James A. Thomas (painting)
- Porcelain Urns with Mythical Beasts
- Embroidered Bedspread
- Chinese Rug
- Ishii Vases
- Carved Chests
- Wei To (embroidery)
- Elderly Man (scroll)
- People in Outdoor Setting (scroll)
- Lady in Red (scroll)
- Calligraphy (scroll)
- Porcelain Lion Lamps
- Table with Marble Top
- Cheang Park Chew (painting)
- Porcelain Urns with Lids
- Chinese Cabinet
- Imperial Robe
- Coromandel Screen
- Teakwood Tables
- Altar Table
- Embroidered Scroll with Nine Figures
- Winter Landscape (ink on silk)
The Reapers, ca. 1880, Oil on canvas, 33" x 44," by Norval H. Busey, after Julien Dupre
The Reapers is a copy by Norval H. Busey of a painting by Julien Dupre. It shows two men in wooden shoes working in a field. One bends forward to cut grass; the other cleans his cutting blade. Nearby a seated woman leans against a stack of mown grass. Behind them a flat green field stretches to the horizon. It was transferred from the Benjamin Duke's Durham home, Four Acres (later called the University House), in 1960. This painting is now located on the second floor in the south foyer on the left wall.
Norval H. Busey was born in 1845, in Christiansburg, Virginia. He studied painting with Bouguereau in Paris. Around 1871 he became a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, an early important art club that held regular exhibitions and formed a collection. The club's influence waned by the 1940s. Busey also painted the portraits of Benjamin N. Duke, Mrs. Benjamin N. Duke, Master Angier B. Duke, and Miss Mary Duke, which hang in Lilly Library's Reference Room.
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