A realist depiction of an elderly ploughman and his horses in a field, capturing the physical reality of late nineteenth-century rural labour.

Henry Herbert La Thangue was a central figure in the Newlyn School, a group of artists who adopted the French plein air method to document the realities of rural life in Britain. In The Last Furrow, he captures a moment of quiet labour at the end of a working day. The composition focuses on an elderly ploughman kneeling in the earth to adjust his equipment, while his two horses stand patiently nearby. The scene is devoid of sentimentality, prioritising the physical exertion and the connection between the worker and the soil.

La Thangue utilised a palette of earthy tones, reflecting the damp, turned soil and the muted light of a late afternoon. His brushwork is deliberate, capturing the texture of the horses' coats and the rough fabric of the labourer's clothing. By placing the viewer at a low angle, he draws attention to the physical toll of the task. The work avoids the idealised depictions of pastoral life common in earlier Victorian art, opting instead for a direct observation of agricultural existence. The horses, one white and one dark, provide a visual balance to the figure of the man, creating a sense of unity within the frame. This piece reflects the artist's interest in the dignity of manual labour and the changing nature of the British countryside during the late nineteenth century. It remains a precise record of traditional farming methods before the widespread adoption of mechanisation.