+ Expand

Dimensions: 14 by 21 cm., 5 1/2 by 8 1/4 in.

+ Expand

Provenance: THE PROPERTY OF A COMPANY

bought from the artist by H.J.Carr;
by descent to his great-nephew Professor C.M.Yonge, his sale at Sotheby's, 15th July 1964, lot 45 (bt.Agnew)

+ Expand

Exhibited: Society of Painters in Water-colour, 1880, no.323 (entitled 'Aurora');
Fine Art Society, 1881, no.102a (entitled 'Aurora');
Victoria and Albert Museum, Samuel Palmer, 1978-1979 (XI c)

+ Expand

Literature: Raymond Lister, Catalogue Raisonee of the Works of Samuel Palmer, 1988, p.235. no.V17;
Samuel Palmer: A Vision Recaptured: The Complete Etchings and the Paintings for Milton and for Virgil (Handbook for the above exhibition, with contributions by Arnold Fawcus, Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Raymond Lister and Graham Reynolds), 1978, p.61;
Raymond Lister, ed., The Letters of Samuel Palmer, 1974, pp.684-5, 852, 868;

+ Expand

Notes: This outstanding watercolour dates from circa 1880 and has been described as 'one of the most poetic of Palmer's Virgil designs' (Raymond Lister, Catalogue Raisonee of the Works of Samuel Palmer, 1988, p.235). It was engraved for Palmer's translation of Virgil's Eclogues and illustrates the following lines from Eclogue VIII in his An English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil:

'Scarce with her rosy fingers had the dawn
From glimmering heaven the veil of night withdrawn,
Or folded flocks were loose to browse anew
O'er mountain thyme or trefoil wet with dew,
When leaning sad an olive stem beside,
These, his last numbers, hapless Damon plied.'

As Raymond Lister has suggested (see Literature), this watercolour embraces several aspects of Palmer's experience: the distant mountains recall the Italian Appenines which he visited during his sojourn in Italy between 1837 and 1839; the cottage, sheepfold, sheep and piping shepherd recall his beloved Shoreham; and the nearer landscape contains elements drawn from Kent and Devon. This watercolour brings together all of Palmer's youthful experiences whilst presenting an idyllic pastoral scene characteristic of the writings of Virgil.

Throughout his life Palmer admired Virgil's writings. Early on he was inspired by William Blake's illustrations to Thornton's Pastorals of Virgil and when was in Italy he saw for himself the classical landscapes in which Virgil's writings were set. He therefore, decided to make his own translation of the Eclogues and, with the help of his friend Edward Calvert, who was a classicist, he got somewhere near to completion in 1872, although it was not until 1881 that his introduction was finally written.

Palmer wrote to the art critic and etcher Philip Gilbert Hamerton in 1872 to ask for guidance with his project. It was Hamerton who suggested that Palmer illustrate his translation with original etchings and Palmer soon realised the merits of this idea. One etching was planned for each Eclogue, but the method of producing these was so slow that when Palmer died in 1881 only one had been completed, Opening the Fold. As well as the present watercolour, Palmer executed two other working drawings for this etching, both squared for transfer and less finished than the present work, one is now in the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1977.14.6240) and the other is recorded in the collection of W.C.Wilder.

On Palmer's death four other etchings for his translation of the Eclogues were near to completion. These were finished, according to Palmer's instructions, by his son, A.H.Palmer (see Raymond Lister, Catalogue Raisonee of the Works of Samuel Palmer, 1988, pp.249-251, nos.E14-17). Nine other drawings were reproduced by a photographic process, which was far less time consuming than the original etchings. This completed the project, although sadly not by the method which Palmer had intended