The Sower
1850
Millet's energetic sketch captures a peasant mid-stride, rhythmically casting seeds from a bag slung across his shoulder. Created in 1850 as a study for his monumental painting of the same name, this drawing reveals the raw motion behind the final masterpiece. At the time, depicting a rural worker with such heroic, almost giant-like stature was a radical statement in the Realist movement, elevating the everyday laborer to the status of a classical hero. Vincent van Gogh was so obsessed with this image that he created numerous copies of it, trying to capture that same raw, earthy power.
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