The Sower

Description Millet first gained widespread notoriety with his iconic image of a sower shown at the 1850/51 Paris Salon. In this pastel version, he integrates the sower into the landscape around Barbizon with a harrower, a flock of crows, and the tower of Chailly visible in the distance. Millet built up his composition with a network of black chalk lines before adding his pastels.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
1/01/2002	Treatment	examined for exhibition; repaired; other

Exhibitions

• French Masterworks on Paper. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1992.
• The Works of Antoine-Louis Barye. American Art Gallery (New York), New York. 1889-1890.
• A Baltimorean in Paris: George A. Lucas, 1860-1909. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979.
• A Connoisseur's Portfolio: Nineteenth-century Drawings and Watercolors in the Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1983.
• The Road to Impressionism: Landscapes from Corot to Manet. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2004-2005.
• The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. 2005-2006.

Provenance Montaignac, Paris; purchased by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, June 9, 1884 [1]; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931. [1] The Diary of George A. Lucas, p. 588.

Inscriptions "J.F. Millet" in chalk in lower right

Credit Acquired by William T. Walters, 1884