The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 16, 2026

The Seed Falling by the Wayside

1574

Philip Galle

(Flemish, 1537–1612)

after Gerard van Groeningen

(Flemish)
Netherlands
engraving
L. E. Holden Fund 2023.128.1
Catalogue raisonné: New Hollstein, Philips Galle 148 i/iii
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Two allegorical figures, Negligence and Sluggishness, seated at either side of the sleeping sower indicate two sources of his problems.

Description

This is one of a series of four prints portraying the biblical parable of the sower, made in Antwerp (in present-day Belgium) at the end of the 1500s. The parable compares types of soil to people in the world: one hardened; one fickle; one distracted by things of the world; and one with an open heart, ready to accept God. In this image of the sower hardened to the word of God, the man has fallen asleep beside the field while a small devil steals the word of God from his heart.
  • Private Collection, France
    ?–2023
    (Galerie Paul Prouté, Paris, France), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 11, 2023–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=The Seed Falling by the Wayside|url=false|author=Philip Galle, Gerard van Groeningen|year=1574|access-date=16 March 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2023.128.1