Samuel
Palmer
(Newington,
south London 1805 – 1881 Redhill, near
Reigate, Surrey)
The
Sleeping Shepherd; Early Morning
a.
The Sleeping Shepherd; Early Morning
Alexander 6 iii/iv, Lister 6 iii/iv
123 x 103 mm (bevelled plate); 95 x 78 mm (image);
243 x 185 mm (sheet)
Etching,
c1854-57. Proof in the penultimate state, the
image finalised, the plate reduced in width,
but before Palmer’s name
beneath the image and the number 5.
On laid india paper. A little time-toned. A tiny
uninked printing defect at the top right.
Sold
b.
The Sleeping Shepherd; Early Morning
Alexander 6 iv/iv, Lister 6 iv/iv
123 x 103 mm (bevelled plate); 95 x 78 mm (image);
232 x 190 mm (sheet)
An
impression in the published state (not illustrated),
with Palmer’s
name and the plate number 5, as issued in Etchings
for the Art Union of London by the Etching Club,
1857; edition of 500; only issue. Trimmed in the
margins of the wove support sheet, slight foxing
in the margins and rubbed in the margin at the right
plate edge.
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Additional
Information about the Print
For the pose and dress of the figure of the sleeping
shepherd, both here in the etching (in reverse)
and in the closely related watercolour c1854 (now
in the Fitzwilliam), Palmer reprised a late Shoreham
painting of The Sleeping Shepherd from
c1834-5 (itself preceded by three different drawings
on this archetypal pastoral theme in pencil - in
a sketchbook, 1824, in sepia 1825 and finally black
ink the 1830’s).
In
the inking of this proof the deeply bitten birds
stand out against the paler distant wooded hillside
and enhance the feel of spatial recession.
Though
unassociated directly with any particular lines
of poetry, it is an intensely poetic image, redolent
of much pastoral verse. |