The Seed Received among the Thorns, from the Parable of the Sower

About the Artwork

This design for a print is from a suite portraying the biblical parable of the sower. 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. The third sower (here, a pilgrim) distractedly throws his seeds among thorns. He is surrounded by two female personifications—Cares of the World, and Avarice (extreme greed for money). Behind them, the fourth sower successfully plants his crop. The content and its presentation exemplify the instructive tone of the period’s moral discourse.

Inscriptions

inscribed lower right in brown ink: "avarita"

Provenance

?-2011: Private Collection, New York, NY 2011: sold, Doyle New York, October 26, 2011, sale 11CN03, Lot 24 [as Flemish School] 2011-2012: with Christopher Bishop Fine Art, Milford, CT 2012-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.

Exhibition history

Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (October 9, 2022-January 8, 2023). The Renaissance Engraver at Work. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 5-November 1, 2026).

Quick Overview

Artist: Gerard P. van Groningen (Netherlandish, active late 1500s)
Date: c. 1573
Medium: Black chalk, gray wash, and brown ink, on cream laid paper; traces of transfer
Dimensions: Sheet: 19.7 x 25.5 cm (7 3/4 x 10 1/16 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 2012.4

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.