tour 18 of 18
Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer, The Lonely Tower, watercolour
The Lonely
Tower - reworked several times - became the
most potent image of Palmer's last period. It was the last
in the Milton cycle, and related to the following verse in
Milton's poem 'Il
Penseroso':
'Or
let me lamp at midnight hour,
Be seen in some
high lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch
the Bear,
With thrice great
Hermes.'
The tower
depicted is that of Leith Hill, near Dorking. This had particular
significance for Palmer as it was adjacent to High Ashes Farm,
where Palmer had been staying when his son Thomas More Palmer died
in 1861. After this tragedy Palmer fled the farmhouse never to
return, although in the following year the family moved to Furze
Hill House in Redhill, from which Leith Hill was also
visible.
The composition of
the watercolour is simple and more focused than earlier versions of
the same subject. The shepherd and his love concentrate on the
tower, which is brought out in high dark relief against the sky.
The tower is shown with a projecting turret, known to have been
added in the 1860s. This watercolour was probably one of the last,
if not the very last, that Palmer executed. His son A.H. Palmer
later described how, when Palmer was ill in bed in the last months
of his life, 'he continued his work, for a time, more
effectively than I should have thought
possible'.