tour 7 of 18
Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer, Cornfield by Moonlight, with the Evening Star, watercolour and gouache, with brown ink, varnished
This is one of the largest and finest
'moonlight' paintings from Palmer's time at
Shoreham. It shows a man with a smock, broad hat and staff walking
with his dog through a cornfield that has already been cut and
stacked in sheaves. The sky has a large waxing sickle moon and
evening star, and the glimmering light lends the work an ethereal
quality. Although the specific location is unknown, the rounded
hills indicate that this was the countryside around Shoreham. The
scene - with the figure contemplating the moon in awe - has
religious undertones.
The
picture is carefully composed, although the brush strokes are quite
free and the colours rich. This type of work attracted the British
Neo-Romantics in the mid-twentieth century to Palmer. The work was
owned for part of the twentieth century by the art historian Sir
Kenneth Clark, a great admirer of Palmer who died in
1983.