The Sower by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh completed The Sower in 1888. In the painting, the modest, calm figure of the sower is subsumed into the chromatic vitality of the world that surrounds him.

Vincent van Gogh's The Sower, 1888
Vincent van Gogh's The Sower is an oil on canvas
(25-1/4x31-3/4 inches) that is housed in the
Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands.

The field in which the sower casts the new seeds vibrates with dabs of blue and yellow. With flickers of black, van Gogh depicted birds descending to feast on the seeds, and he used vertical impasto strokes to paint the stalks of grain. A burning sun hovers in the yellow sky, and its thickly painted rays streak through the background.

Vincent van Gogh demonstrates a high level of control in Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Explore this painting in the next section.

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