Lineage of Corot · English · 1805 to 1881
Samuel Palmer
The visionary of Shoreham, whose etched trees are the most patiently built in the language.
Palmer, Blake's disciple, spent his twenties in the Kent valley of Shoreham drawing moonlit orchards, cornfields and ancient trees with a density of pencil and sepia that no English draughtsman had attempted. Late in life he turned to etching and produced a dozen plates, The Bellman, The Lonely Tower, The Herdsman's Cottage, that are built from thousands of fine lines into a glowing tonal whole.
His Lonely Tower is the obvious companion to Corot's lithograph of the same title in this catalogue. Draw them side by side: Corot's tower is a mass in air, Palmer's is a point of light in a web of line. Both are the same subject.
Palmer, The Lonely Tower, 1879. etching.
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams, presented in honor of Henry Sayles Francis, Curator of Prints
What to steal
- 1Tone built from many fine lines in layers, each layer a different direction.
- 2The tree trunk as the darkest, most worked passage, against a sky of pure paper or dense night.
- 3Moonlight: everything one value darker than you think, except the one light.
How to look
- Find the brightest point. Measure how small it is.
- Pick a dark passage and count the directions of hatching in it.
Studies 3 guided · 12 plate copies
All 15 →
Master studyPalmer
The Lonely Tower
Palmer's night, to set beside Corot's: a point of light in a web of line
3h
Master studyPalmer
Opening the Fold, or Early Morning
A sunrise built from line: the brightest thing is the least drawn
2.5h
Master studyPalmer
A Woodland Study
A dark wood with one lit path, in brush and wash
2h
Plate copyPalmer
School House at Kings Norton Near Birmingham
Palmer, 1824: a plate copy from pencil and wash
2h
Plate copyPalmer
Evening in Italy—the Deserted Villa
Palmer, 1845: a plate copy from pencil and wash
2h
Plate copyPalmer
A Cloaked Figure Passing Through the Street (at the Time of the Pla…
Palmer, published December 1, 1861: a plate copy from an etched line
2.5h
Works
15 public-domain
School House at Kings Norton Near Birmingham
1824 · Pen and brown ink and brush and watercolor
Evening in Italy—the Deserted Villa
1845 · Watercolor
Sabrina
1856 · Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite
The Golden Hour
1865 · watercolor and gouache with graphite and scraping
The Potato Harvest
1877 · Pen and brown ink
Opening the Fold, or Early Morning
1880 · Etching; third state of ten
The Skylark
c. 1850 · pen and ink over graphite with white heightening
A Woodland Study
c. 1856 · Brush and black and brown washes
The Bridge at Shoreham
ca. 1829 · Pen and brown ink
On the North Coast of Devon, Lundy Island in the Distance
ca. 1835 · Watercolor and black chalk over graphite with touches of gouache (bodycolor)
Page from a sketchbook
ca. 1848 (?) · Graphite
View of Clovelly, Devon
ca. 1848–49 · Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor)
Forest Scene with Waterfall and Two Figures
n.d. · Black chalk
The Lonely Tower
1879 · etching
A Cloaked Figure Passing Through the Street (at the Time of the Plague in London)
published December 1, 1861 · Etching