© 2005 James Fairfax
The Sleeping ShepherdThe Sleeping Shepherd

 

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Samuel Palmer

Samuel Palmer, The Sleeping Shepherd, tempera and oil over chalk with scatching out on board, laid down on panel

Palmer first drew a sleeping shepherd - a stock figure of pastoral literature - in his sketchbook of 1824. It became a favourite motif and one to which he returned many times during his career. This version is in oil and the support is, unusually, a commercially prepared board, rather than the heavy panel that Palmer normally used for his oil paintings.

The painting is a landscape seen from inside a barn, with an elaborate array of farming utensils at the right. The shepherd sleeps propped up against the door post. Behind him, a curtain is drawn to reveal a view across a valley towards distant hills illuminated by the night sky. A cottage with a light in the window, the shepherd's home, can be seen. The spellbound scene appears dreamlike, as if the curtain might drop, obscuring the pastoral idyll once the shepherd awakes.

This painting was done during Palmer's last years at Shoreham, during which time he produced some of his most extraordinary works. He had, however, become disillusioned with country life, the reality of which was far removed from the scenes he painted. The poor conditions of the farm labourers had sparked uprisings around 1830 and Palmer was further disturbed by a Reform Bill, which he thought would increase poverty. He even published a pamphlet opposing the changes, but the Bill was passed in 1832. After that he began to spend more time in London, leaving Shoreham altogether around 1835.