Study of a White Horse is one of Nikolai Sysoev’s picturesque sketches for the painting Summer Harvest Campaign. Sysoev painted most of the preparatory studies for his paintings about the work and life of Soviet collective farmers in the Tver Region village of Gorodok. The artist spent most of his time here, although he had a workshop in Moscow. Simple rural life fascinated the artist more than the hustle and bustle of the city. While in the thick of rural life in the Tver Region, Sysoev could not help but admire the work of local villagers. The depiction of their hard and honest work was one of the artist’s favourite inspirations.

Sysoev painted Summer Harvest Campaign in 1981, but had been collecting material for a long time prior to this as he carefully studied each figure and each important detail. This study is an example of that. A man in simple work clothes is leading a horse. The horse is walking along leisurely pulling a horse rake behind it. The painting shows almost all the details of the design of this farming tool. Sysoev pays attention to such fine points, studies them, and makes sure that each element looks convincing on the finished painting with its multiple figures.

The multi-figure composition Summer Harvest Campaign truly required a lot of work. The artist made about 50 preparatory studies for this monumental canvas. In the picture, he captured one of the most stressful and crucial moments of rural working life — haymaking. Sysoev portrayed it in his own way based on his personal disposition and his perception of reality. The things going on in the picture are from his own life experiences since this is what the artist saw every summer as he gazed out the windows of his workshop.