The Sower: Two Romantic Interpretations by Emily Cottrill | HOMESCHOOLING TODAY Magazine

Romanticism is a confusing term for today's students. For most, we hear "romantic" and images of candlelight, cupid, flowers, and poetry come to mind. To understand Romanticism, we must get rid of our Hollywood and even Hallmark notions of the term and rediscover what it meant to the nineteenth-century art world. To the art critic of the nineteenth century, this term connoted a very different set of values. Its root was coined from the literary romances, or adventures, which were popular at the time and were written in the romance languages derived from Latin. Adventure, drama, and excitement were an integral part of the movement that came to be known as Romanticism.

Romanticism in art emerged as a reaction against the rationality of the Neo-Classicists. The rebirth of Classicism had been largely an answer to the Enlightenment emphasis on rational thought. But Neo-Classicism, while emulating ideal Beauty and Truth, often seemed vapid and impersonal: feeling and individuality were ignored, distancing most viewers from the subjects portrayed. The Romantic artists sought to counteract cold, vague Classicism by painting works imbued with their feelings and imagination. Often this was expressed through dramatic compositions filled with vivid colors and action that gripped the viewer, forcing him to make an emotional response to what he saw. For instance, a Neo-Classical painter might portray Patriotism as a duty owed to the state: an ideal yet dispassionate virtue. By contrast, a Romantic would paint a picture inspiring Patriotism not as a loyal duty to the state, but as an outpouring of rage in reaction to injustice inciting the viewer to leap to his feet and join the fight.

Contrary to Neo-Classicist tendencies to alter and idealize nature, Romantic painters depicted the world around them with such naturalism that the label Realism has often been mistakenly applied to their work. Additionally, Romantics sought to portray the sublime—the spiritual force behind the outward appearance—a fascination rooted in the awe-inspiring power of the Creator, whether the artist recognized Him or not. Romantic painters admired nature for the spiritual meaning the world contains, and they tried to portray the duality of all things, the rational surface appearance and the subliminal spiritual purpose.

Jean-François Millet

One artist who portrayed the world around him with humble reverence was Jean-François Millet (Zhahn fran-SWAH mee-LAY) (1814-75). Born into a farming family in Normandy and poor all his life, Millet identified with the peasants around him. These simple people became the subjects of his most significant works. A devout Christian, he began his artistic pursuits at an early age, copying pictures from a Bible.

Paris was the undisputed center of the art world during Millet's lifetime. After winning a local commission, Millet was able to study art in Paris, but soon realized city life was not for him. He moved to the village of Barbizon, located in the Fontainebleau Forest outside Paris, which was the site of a significant school of landscape painters. The political turmoil in France during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often made its mark on the art world. Each changing regime had its own beliefs and ideals. Just before Millet moved to Barbizon, the working class overthrew the monarchy in the Revolution of 1848. The new regime elevated the status of the common people. Consequently, many art critics felt that Millet's propensity for painting peasants was political in motive which caused him to be mislabeled a Realist. On the contrary, Millet chose peasants as a subject because he believed the biblical mandate for man to work the land and live off the fruit of his labors was admirable. He sought to record the honest and, in his opinion, honorable group by painting them as they went about their daily lives—toiling, resting, praying. Millet had a powerful influence in the life of Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh (1853-90) is an infamous character in the field of painting, as memorable for the speculation about his madness as for his works of art. An often overlooked but significant aspect to the enigmatic man behind the masterpieces is his religious background. Born to a clergyman in Holland, Vincent van Gogh studied to become a pastor and spent many years working as a missionary among poor miners and peasants. Van Gogh deeply loved these simple people whom he saw as the salt of the earth. What he most admired about the working class who tilled the soil was their honest labor. They planted the seed, tended the crops, and reaped the harvest. His admiration of peasants was very similar to Millet's.

Primarily a self-taught artist, van Gogh found his aptitude for painting only during the last ten years of his life. The thread of Romanticism runs strong in this Dutch painter. He poured his feelings and emotions into his pieces, choosing colors not based in reality but which described his thoughts and response towards his subjects. Using simple but dynamic compositions, van Gogh painted emotionally dramatic artworks.

Van Gogh developed a set of symbols that appear repeatedly in his works expressing his religious beliefs. He uses the sun as a central image in many of his paintings to signify God, the Creator and Life-Giver. The cypress tree, rooted in the earth and reaching towards heaven, is a picture of a person's journey towards eternal life. The sower is another repetitive symbol Vincent adopted directly from Millet. Among his early works, van Gogh portrayed peasants countless times and sought to reproduce his favorite Millet paintings.

Expressionism is the name art critics have given to the style that Van Gogh developed. Inspired by the Impressionists' use of bright colors and paint that is left unblended on the surface of the canvas, van Gogh took their innovations in a Romantic direction. His characteristic elongated strokes of color, which contribute to the energy in his paintings, began to appear after he viewed the Post-Impressionist works of Cézanne (see Understanding the Arts in Homeschooling Today, January/February 2008) and Georges Seurat. He chose colors that were purposefully different than the naturalist would use to portray the world. He wanted to encourage the viewer to look twice. Van Gogh, like other Romantics, believed we are creative individuals interacting with one another and the world around us.

Painting the Sower

It is perhaps inevitable for two painters who esteemed farmers and were religious to turn to the image of the sower in their art. Christ taught in parables—stories about everyday life that held deeper spiritual lessons. His parable of the sower provided both artists with much to contemplate. For each of them there was a wealth of meaning attached to a visual representation of a man sowing his field. In many ways, Romantic paintings are like parables—one can take them at face value. The task of a farmer seeding his field and the inevitable loss of some crops and the hope that some will grow to maturity to be harvested is a story with which peasants were very familiar. But we also know that there is symbolic meaning in both the parable and the paintings. For Millet (see figure A, pg. 38), the sower epitomizes the fulfillment of the Christian life: man works as God commanded. His righteousness is the fruit of his obedience. For Van Gogh (see figure B, pg. 38), who lost faith in the established Church that rejected him, the sower is a picture of the hope that God has not forsaken him. God created the universe in such a way that the material points beyond itself to the immaterial. These two Romantic artists echo this as they use tangible paint and canvas to probe the small mysteries of life.

Millet endows his sower with great importance. Here is a portrait of a man hitherto ignored in Academic art. If peasants were previously depicted in paintings, they were placed in demeaning positions, acknowledging them to be subservient—men to be laughed at and abused. The esteem he had for this class of people led Millet to centralize his focus on individual peasants, not painting them to be scorned but to be viewed as an essential and virtuous portion of society. Sympathetic with the man's task, Millet portrays him sowing the field by hand, capturing and conveying the rhythmic stride and cadence of his swinging arm. Millet doesn't have to reveal the sweat and dirt that builds up on his subject for the viewer to be aware of the effort involved. By filling the canvas with the laborer, Millet confronts his audience and forces it to consider the subject as a person. He doesn't portray the sower from a distance but at a close range. This technique was new for the art world at this time. Peasants had been dismissed as vulgar, dirty, and unworthy of notice. As the regime in France changed again, the government despised his paintings resenting that they portrayed rural poverty. Art critics also disparaged Millet's work, believing it to be too religious, but he pressed on showing there was worth and integrity even in the least of these.

Van Gogh admired the work of Millet above almost all others. He had painted many copies of the older man's work as well as many that were inspired by the French painter. He painted The Sower (after Millet) in the last year of his life. Keeping the pose the same, van Gogh depicts more details, showing us his face instead of keeping it in shadow. The characteristic brushstrokes of the Dutch master heighten the sense of rhythm that is present in the posture of the original. Also, Van Gogh lightened the sky using yellow, his signature color for happiness, lending a feeling of contentment to this rural scene.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Europe was exposed to non-Western art, and Japanese woodcut prints were another source of inspiration for van Gogh. The flat, simple composition with strong lines and bright colors had a grace and beauty that was entirely new for him. The two greatest inspirations to the Dutch artist, Japanese woodcuts and Millet's peasants, unite in The Sower painting from 1888. Van Gogh had reached his mature style and continued to depict rural scenes that had captured his attention from the beginning of his career. However, here we see a more symbolic approach to his subject. His early peasant pieces were painted in grays and browns—rich earth tones which testify to the connection between the ground and the field laborer. In this painting the colors are much more vivid than those present in Millet's version. The green sky that may be a little unusual is balanced by the diagonal sweep of the willow tree and the parallel movement of the figure at the left. The setting sun is stylized so its appearance is undeniably symbolic. The sun shines as a halo in the background promising to nourish the ground and grow the seeds to fruition.

We see from Millet and van Gogh two different treatments of the Sower. One is rooted in a keen observance of nature and the working class that captured the painter's empathy. The other also esteems the honest labor of the saints but is perhaps more passionate as the painter expresses his feelings on the canvas through bright colors and pulsating bits of paint that show the energy pouring forth from the ground and renewed by the sun. Both of these methods are part of the Romantic desire to portray a deeper truth about the world than stale objective facts. As Christians, we agree, since God created man to interact with and respond to the natural environment and to glorify the One who made it all.

References

• Art History, 2nd Edition, Volume 2, Marilyn Stokstad. Prentice Hall, 2002.
• A Child's History of Art, V.M. Hillyer. D. Appleton- Century, 1933.
• At Eternity's Gate: A Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh, Kathleen Powers Erickson. Eerdmans, 1998.
• Art: A New History, Paul Johnson. HarperCollins, 2003.

• Millet Tilled the Soil, Sybil Deucher and Opal Wheeler. (Alas this charming story is out of print, but maybe you can find a copy to read with your children).
• Van Gogh, Mike Venezia.
• Van Gogh, Ernest Raboff.
• Vincent van Gogh, Elizabeth Ripley.

Art Lessons:

Lesson #1:

Millet and van Gogh both admired peasants, or the working class. They closely observed these people as they went about their lives. Whom do you admire? Spend time observing that person and make a picture that shows them going about their work.

Lesson #2:

Romantic painters tried to put their feelings into the pieces they created. They often used colors that were bright or unusual to show what they thought and felt about their subjects. Talk about different colors and how they make you feel. Which colors make you excited? Sad? Calm? Does yellow make you happy like it did van Gogh? Make a picture, maybe a self-portrait, that shows how you are feeling using some of these colors.

Neo-Classicism

• Revival of style the Greeks perfected—the Ideal form
• Traditional, formal techniques taught by National Academies
• Emphasis on skill and ability to draw extremely well

Romanticism

• Emotional response of viewer and painter is necessary
• Dramatic, colorful, active compositions
• Color is emphasized over line, strong use of light and dark

Realism

• Portrayal of the world in its true details: dirt, warts, and all
• Disparity between lower and upper classes is evident
• Socio-Political motives encouraging reform