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Creator:
Samuel Palmer, 1805–1881
Title:

A Moonlit Scene with a Winding River

Additional Title(s):

Verso: Pen and Ink Sketches

Moonlight Scene with a Winding River

Date:
ca. 1827
Medium:
Black and brown wash, gouache, and gum on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 10 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches (26.7 x 18.1 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Collector's mark: Thomas Esmond Lowinsky (Lugt 2420a)

Inscribed in pen and black ink, verso, center left: "From the collection of A. H. Palmer - 3863 24th Avenue West - Vancouver. BC. | Exhibited at Victoria and Albert Museum Oct. 1926 to Feb 1927 - at the Palmer exhibition | Number 60 in the official Catalogue. | Sold at Christie March 4th 1929 --"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.4643
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
forest | landscape | moon | moonlight | night | river | trees
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:14270
Export:
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The years that Palmer spent in Shoreham were the happiest and most creative of his life. Palmer had first visited the village in Kent, southeast of London, in 1824, and stayed there with the Ancients periodically over the next few years. In 1828, his father, retired from bookselling, rented a house in Shoreham, and Palmer moved in with him. Money left him by his grandfather allowed Palmer to pursue his art without concern for making a living.
Throughout his years in Shoreham, Palmer produced monochrome drawings in black and brown ink and watercolor that he referred to as his “blacks.” Indebted to Blake’s wood engraved “Illustrations to Robert Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil” (1821) for their simple forms of landscape, figures, and animals and for their crepuscular atmosphere, these drawings frequently depicted moonlit scenes that perhaps reflect the nocturnal wanderings of the Ancients in the countryside around Shoreham.
“A Moonlight Scene with a Winding River” is one of the more densely worked up of these “blacks” with a heavy admixture of opaque white paint. The landscape seems to pulsate with life. On the left is a cottage or mill; on the right, a sheepfold. The palm tree on the right adds an exotic element perhaps deriving from a print by Dürer or Schongauer; it has been suggested that it may be a symbol of the Christian’s victory over death (Lister, 1988, no. 73) or a punning reference on the artist’s name (White, 1977, p. 120).

Scott Wilcox

Baskett, John, Jules David Prown, Duncan Robinson, Brian Allen, and William Reese. Paul Mellon's Legacy: A Passion for British Art. New Haven : Yale Center for British Art , 2007, cat. no. 112

Rachel Rose: Goodnight Moon (SITE Santa Fe, 2023-06-02 - 2023-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Royal Academy of Arts, 2007-10-20 - 2008-01-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : A Passion for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

An American's Passion for British Art - Paul Mellon's Legacy (Yale Center for British Art, 2007-04-18 - 2007-07-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Samuel Palmer 1805-1881 Vision and Landscape (British Museum, 2005-10-21 - 2006-01-22) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Great Age of British Watercolors c.1750 - 1880 (National Gallery of Art, 1993-05-02 - 1993-07-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Great Age of British Watercolors c.1750 - 1880 (Royal Academy of Arts, 1993-01-15 - 1993-07-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

British Watercolors - A Golden Age 1750-1850 (The Speed Art Museum, 1977-10-17 - 1977-11-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Drawings and Watercolors from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon (Yale University Art Gallery, 1965-04-15 - 1965-06-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours from the collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1964, cat. no. 19, pl. IX, N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, Paul Mellon's Legacy: a Passion for British Art: Masterpieces from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, p. 295, no. 112, pl. 112, N5220 M552 P38 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Raymond Lister, A catalogue raisonne of the works of Samuel Palmer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, 1988, p. 59, no. 73, NJ18 P19 A12 L57 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 2, no. 112, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christiana Payne, ' A mild, a grateful, an unearthly lustre ', Samuel Palmer and the Moon , Burlington Magazine, vol. 154, no. 1310, May 2012, pp. 332, 333, fig. 30, N1 B87 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christopher White, English landscape, 1630-1850, drawings, prints & books from the Paul Mellon Collection , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, p. 120, no. 216, pl. CLXXV, NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, English drawings and watercolors, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, April 15 - June 20, 1965 , New Haven, 1965, cat. no. 19, Pl. 9, NC228 Y34 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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