TitleThe Sower
Artist
Lee Oskar Lawrie
(American, 1877 - 1963)
Date1928
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 23 1/4 × 12 1/4 × 7 1/4 in.
Other (Sculpture): 21 3/8 × 12 1/4 × 7 1/4 in.
Other (Base): 2 1/4 × 7 1/4 × 7 1/4 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, November 6, 1933
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number70-S
Label TextIn 1920, the state of Nebraska held a competition for the selection of an architect for its new state capitol building in Lincoln. Thomas R. Kimball, professional advisor for the competition committee, described the competition as one meant "to recall those collaborative methods wherein a group of creative artists working under the leadership of an architect have been responsible for the creation of monumental masterpieces in the past. This competition seeks a man, not a plan." The commission found their man in Bertram G. Goodhue who then selected Lee Lawrie to design the sculptures for the building.Lawrie modeled this figure, "The Sower," to stand atop the dome of the capitol building's dominating, central tower, four hundred feet tall. The figure represents the agricultural interests of the state and recalls Jean-François Millet's famous painted "Sower" (1850; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) on which it is clearly based. An idealized male figure is in full stride; he holds open a bag of grain with his left hand and prepares to throw the seed with his right. The Academy's bronze, which is based on the original plaster which remained in the sculptor's studio until his death, is one-third the size of the Nebraska version. Other works done for the Nebraska Capitol by Lawrie include large buttress figures and a running frieze in relief.
In a letter to the Academy describing this piece, the artist wrote: "Now I am sending you a small figure in bronze, the sketch for the colossal finial on the tower of the Nebraska Capitol. The narrow front and back were necessary, since these parts of the figure pointed to the northeast and southwest and should offer the least area to the strong winds in Nebraska that come annually from those directions. As a preliminary for a much larger work, I thought it would be more interesting to keep it as it is and not widen those views of it." Lawrie repeated the figure of "The Sower" in a more stylized format on the Society of Medalists fifth issue medal of 1932 which bears the inscription "Whatsoever a Man Soweth, That shall he also reap." An example of this medal is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
