The Sower

The farmer carries a seed bag from his shoulder and strides as if going down a slope, sowing seed with a broad swing of his right arm. His face sinks into the shadow of his hat, and his expression can hardly be seen. In the sky at the upper left a flock of birds wheels, about to peck at the seed, and on a hill at the back right a small figure plows the field with oxen.

Dark browns and blacks occupy most of the picture, and only the sky near the horizon glows brightly. The outline of the figure rising in the backlight conveys both the weight of his tread on the earth and the force of his movement. A distinctive feature is that a single farmer is painted on a monumental scale.

Jean-Francois Millet moved to the village of Barbizon near Paris in 1849 and continued to paint peasant life there until his death in 1875. This work, from 1850, is regarded as the first large painting he made after the move. A work of the same composition also exists in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Yamanashi work is thought to have been painted afterward.

The Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art purchased this work and Shepherdess Bringing Home Her Flock at Dusk on its opening in 1978. Choosing Millet as a painter suited to Yamanashi's agricultural climate, it has continued collecting his works since and has become a museum known for its Millet collection.