Study of Barley, Oats, and Wheat,

1846–47

Palmer’s plant study and Strang’s sketchbook show the ways artists used drawing to work through ideas on the page, often as studies that would be turned into prints or incorporated into paintings. Strang’s sketchbook is filled with sketches drawn from nude models, after other artist’s prints, from the landscape, and from his imagination. On this page, two landscapes float above a candid sketch of a woman who seems to have fallen asleep in her chair, layered overtop an ink sketch of a figure’s head.

While Strang’s drawings are quick and sketchy, Palmer’s careful studies are annotated with detailed notes and worked up in watercolor. The luminous quality of Palmer’s drawing, resulting from the application of golden-yellow highlights on a gray-green paper, reflects an interest in lighting effects borne out by his inscriptions: “Looking against sunset light the transparent husk of the ear forms a thin golden halo round it—the ears being darks off the transparent tone of the straw.”