Samuel Palmer  
(Newington, south London 1805 – 1881 Redhill, near Reigate, Surrey)

The Weary Ploughman originally known as
The Herdsman or Tardus Bubulcus

The Weary Ploughman originally known as The Herdsman or Tardus Bubulcus
Alexander 8 viii/viii, Lister 8 viii/viii
192 x 263 mm (plate); 132 x 202 mm (image); 321 x 448 mm (sheet)

Etching, 1858. Published state, with the number 4 in the lower plate border, as issued in A Selection of Etchings by the Etching Club, 1865; total edition of 350; the only issue; comprising 300 on india paper and 50 proofs on larger paper. On laid india paper. Occasional foxing and other small defects in the wide margins of the support sheet. Gilt-edged along one side. Two old tape stains at the sheet edges verso.

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Additional Information about the Print

Palmer carried out this plate in 1858, in a six week period of intense, almost non-stop work. He made copious technical notes about biting times and procedures.

Palmer exhibited a proof impression of The Weary Ploughman at the Royal Academy in 1865 with the title The Ploughman Homeward Plods his Weary Way, a quotation from Thomas Gray’s Elegy written in a Country Churchyard (1742-50), which gives rise to the alternative Latin title in translation of Tardus Bubulcus.

However, though A H Palmer later would strongly deny it as the title, it was as The Herdsman  that the image was listed and published. Lister points out that is a more appropriate title as the oxen show no signs of tackle and ploughing was unlikely to have been taking place in Spring when the horse-chestnut tree, at the left, was in flower.

It was Griggs who came up with the title The Weary Ploughman, complementing that of Palmer’s next plate, The Early Ploughman, a plate of similar dimensions and composition, but in reverse.