Vincent van Gogh - Sower with Setting Sun

The Sower / Sower with Setting Sun, painted in 1888 in oil on canvas by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh in Arles. The sower advances across a strongly coloured field while an enormous setting sun dominates the horizon. Van Gogh enlarges and simplifies the forms, using intense yellows, violets and blues to turn an ordinary agricultural scene into an almost emblematic image. The composition reflects both his long admiration for Millet's sowers and the flatter, more decorative structure he associated with Japanese prints.