The Sower (after Millet)
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Etten, April 1881
pencil, pen and brush and ink, watercolour, on paper, 48.1 cm x 36.7 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This was not the first copy that Van Gogh made of The Sower by Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). Nor was it the last one: it was a painting that Van Gogh greatly admired. He saw the sower as a symbol of the cycle of life: growth, flourishing and the harvest.
This drawing is based on a black-and-white print of the painting. That led to minor misunderstandings. Take the grains of wheat that Van Gogh's sower is scattering behind him. In the original painting, there were birds there. These became dots in the print, which Van Gogh interpreted as seed for sowing.
- F-number
- F0830
- JH-number
- JH0001
- Object number
- d0443V1962
- Dimensions
- 48.1 cm x 36.7 cm
- Provenance
- With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after April 1881; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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