Van Gogh... I like his Sunflowers, but this is unusual & maybe even more interesting, I think...?

Sunday 12th July : The Sower : St Matthew 13 v 1-9

Van Gogh : Wheatfield with Cypresses

Van Gogh clearly enjoyed painting the colours of the wheat at harvest time...& even went so far as to paint both sower & harvest in one painting ! (see below & Friday)

Jesus’ parable ends with an amazing harvest...100fold return would be almost impossible even today with all our technological improvements... but a really bumper harvest is the story’s punchline.

The Reaper: Van Gogh (after Millet )

detail from The Sower, showing the wheat already golden for harvest behind the sower !

Saturday: The Sower

Van Gogh : the Sower (after Millet )

 I came across this painting of a sower  by Van Gogh, which shows much more clearly the traditional method of broadcasting the seed...  I have never seen a farmer doing this, and so at first I was puzzled by his slightly odd gait... but of course he is not just walking across the field, but with each step his arm will swing round to scatter the seeds, swinging his whole whole body around as well...

Eventually I managed to find this painting by Millet which must have been the one Van Gogh used as his reference... but painted in a very different style and range of colour & tone...

Millet : The Sower

maybe these paintings can help us imagine the sower in the parable Jesus told & which will be read tomorrow...  but then the ending of the story = the real punchline...& Van Gogh must have known that well... but more tomorrow...   :)

Friday : The Sower

The Sower : Van Gogh

The Sower : Van Gogh  

which of these paintings do you prefer ?

one of them seems to be a cold early morning sunrise...

I have heard the other described as a sunset...

but I am surprised how one painting has wheat all ready for harvesting at the same time that the sower is only just sowing