The Sower, Oskar Martin-Amorbach, 1937
- “Painting presented an opportunity for the genius to don the mantle of landscape to reveal itself to the people” (Michaud, 112)
- Nazi's sought to "establish just such 'a national type of imagination,' one that was able to ensure the formation of judgement that was at once aesthetic, ethical, and practical " (Michaud, 114)
- "...nature came the call for a simple life, with the peasant as the incarnation of the true German." - Adam
- National Socialist ideal of "Blood and Soil" Adam
- "peaceful country life, uncomplicated decent people, clean and earthy." Adam
- "The paintings advertised the eternal values of peasant life as a source of strength, as opposed to the destructive life of the city in which there is no continuity, and in which everything is constantly uprooted" Adam
- German peasant - the raw material and the foundation - Adams
- "...left out was any sign of the increased mechanization of agriculture: the farmer was mostly depicted in primitive earthbound state, sowing, plowing, mowing the grass with a scythe" Adam
- Rainbows and cattle show how all nature is in harmony
- Work in the country seen as diligent and strong
- used for propaganda purposes
- "Art has to grow from the blood and the soil if it wants to live" Schultze-Naumburg
- The selections of art were made by the Nazi's for "the fabrication of 'the German ideal of beauty' that would embody its eternity" (Michaud, 122)
- For landscapes/folk art, this was done by choosing idyllic images that embodied these ideals
- The Sower Specifically
- White, light haired, arian
- Muddy shoes, showing his work, but the rest of his body is clean and neatly made up
- Strong form- shoulders, hands, arms, physique are large/muscular
- smiling, enjoying the work he is doing
- planting seeds- literally in the process of creating/planting for the future, see point #8
- idyllic
- there is a rainbow in the background, wide open rolling hills, woman leading two big, fat cows
- see Adam piece
- harness/satchel over stomach
- reference to baby?
- impregnating Germany with the seeds of the land
- metaphor?
