Currently not on view
Shoreham Paddock,
ca. 1830
Samuel Palmer, 1805–1881; born Newington, England; died Redhill, England
x1944-278
Inspired by his friend and mentor, the visionary poet and artist William Blake, Palmer established an artists community called the Ancients in Shoreham, Kent. This example of his early lyrical brown wash drawings depicts a piece of land south of the village. Palmer ignored much of the complexity of Blake’s mystical Christianity, instead focusing on its earnest love of nature, envisioning the natural world as a sort of paradise. Here, the rolling hills of the Darent Valley create a dreamy, poetic calm. The divine harmony between nature and man is evoked by the quick brushstrokes in the lower right corner that suggest a man who, along with a dog or sheep, is one with his surroundings.
Information
Title
Shoreham Paddock
Dates
ca. 1830
Maker
Medium
Brush and brown wash, over traces of graphite
Dimensions
9.2 x 12 cm (3 5/8 x 4 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frank Jewett Mather Jr.
Object Number
x1944-278
Place Depicted
England, Kent, Shoreham
Inscription
in graphite, on verso: The Background of Mr. Gile's Holy Family, Shoreham Paddock.
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
- "Recent accessions", Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University 3, no. 2 (1944): p. 19., p. 19
- The work of Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881: a loan exhibition, February 1st through February 26th, 1949 [at] Durlacher Brothers, (New York: Durlacher Bros., 1949)., no. 25
- William L. Pressley, Jr., "Samuel Palmer and the pastoral convention", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 28, no. 2 (1969): p. 22-37., p. 22ff.; p. 34 (illus.)
- Barbara T. Ross, "Drawings by Samuel Palmer in the Art Museum", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 29, no. 2 (1970): p. 37-42., p. 38, cat. no. 5
- Larry Gleeson, Followers of Blake: the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, March 2-April 4, 1976, (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1976)., no. 26
- Raymond Lister, Catalogue raisonné of the works of Samuel Palmer, (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988)., p. 153
- William Vaughan, Elizabeth E. Barker and Colin Harrison, Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881: vision and landscape, (Burlington, VT: Lund Humphries, 2005)., p. 198, no. 119
