THE SOWER

 The themes around farm life and people were always one of the main interests of the artist Vincent van Gogh (McMillan, 1989) therefore his painting of ‘The Sower’ which is a celebrated and recognised piece of art of the 19^th century.

The main theme of this painting which is human figure of a sower was in one of the artist’s favourite figures. As Bakker et al (2010) points out, Van Gogh considered the life and work of a sower meaningful and purposeful, but also considered him as a person who works lonely with nature.

His significant painter of ‘The sower’ represents a lonely human figure in a field.  The bright colours of the sower match with nature which is an evident point of Van Gogh’s representation of the relationship between the sower and nature.

In this painting it is interesting how the colours of the sun and nature almost ‘overtook’ the human figure and seem to be the main theme of the painting instead of the sower himself. Uhde (1998) significantly states, that Van Gogh liked the colour yellow and tried to include it in his paintings in different forms. At this painting, the presence of this colour is very intense. 

Furthermore, the bright and lively colours at first show a pessimistic and love for life, but on the other hand the lonely human figure and the darkest colours of the field shows the opposite feelings of misery and survival for life.