安德斯．古勞森 (1917年前購入，藏至1927年後)
湯姆．霍耶 (1988年前購入)
埃納-托爾．厄文，滕斯貝格(1988年前購入)
奧萊．斯蒂恩，奧斯陸
瑞典私人收藏 (2004年購入)
美國私人收藏 (2007年前購入)
現有藏家購自上述人士

「愛德華．孟克」，克里斯蒂那亞，布羅姆奎斯特拍賣行， 1915年，品號12
「孟克 - 1916年展覽」，卑爾根，卑爾根藝術協會， 1916年，品號7
「挪威當代藝術」，斯德哥爾摩，麗列瓦茨藝術館，1917年，品號150
「愛德華．孟克」，奧斯陸，國家美術館，1927年，品號207

格爾德．霍爾，《愛德華．孟克，油畫作品大全，1909 - 1920》，第III冊，倫敦，2009年，品號1043，圖版頁1010

This work is in very good condition. Canvas has a wax lining. Under UV light, no evidence of inpainting.
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In 1908, following a mental breakdown, Munch spent several months in Dr. Jacobsen's clinic in Copenhagen. His subsequent recovery heralded a fundamental shift in his art. In 1910 Munch bought the manor Nedre Ramme in Hvitsten on the east ൩side of the Kristiania Fjord. It was on this estate, where he became Thomas Olsen's neighbor, that he discovered new motifs including farm scenes and bathers. His pictures from this time s▨how Munch as a colorist, characterized by a lighter, life-affirming attitude.

The vibrant palette of Såmannen typifies Munch's post-clinic renaissance. Munch celebrates here what he called 'the perpetual forces of life🐲', his vision of human beings existing in harmony with nature. The theme of the sower encapsulated concepts of fertility and the life cycle and these were certainly on Munch's mind as he experienced a renewed vigor for life. He uses a plethora of medium in this composition, building up layers of impasto that impart his hunger for an unmediated artistic experience.

Munch first addressed the subject of the sower in a work from 1911 which formed part of the Aula series. The King Frederick University of Kristiana (now Oslo) built a new hall to commemmorate its centenary and artists were invited to submit entries in a competition to decorate the monumental walls. As part of his vision for the space, Munch painted The Sun as a centerpiece and planned to place a panel depicting a sower to its left. As he wrote, "The panels on either side of the sun, right next to it, will show: on the left a sower, on the right a man trying find his way through the forest, both of them walking towards the source of life and light" (quoted in Gerd Woll, op. cit., p. 964). Munch followed through on this theme two years later when he painted the present composition. Munch floods Såmannen w💯ith resplendent light, signalling a similar essence of the sun as the "source of life and light."

In its content and compositional structure, Såmannen appears aligned with Vincent van Gogh's work of the same subject from 1888 (fig. 2). Van Gogh's work similarly focused on the life-giving potential of the sun with a symbolist attention to form. J. A. Clarke describes Munch's appreciation of Van Gogh's work, "His cousin Ludvig Ravensberg recounted a conversation with the artist in 1909: 'At dinner today Munch and I had a most interesting conversation about Gauguin and Van Gogh. M[unch] found Van Gogh to be remarkably Germanic. He... also found strong support in Gauguin, whom he also found to be Germanic.' When Munch ascribed Germanic sensibilities to these artists, he was not referring to their palettes, which he rightly argued adopted bold, flat areas of color. Instead, he was thinking of their embrace of 'earthy' subjects; their inventive, self-reflexive approach; and their near-religious tendency towards mysticism" (Jay A. Clarke, Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth (exhibitio🅰n catalogue), The Art Institute of Chicago, 2009, p. 88).