The Golden Hour
Samuel Palmer (British, 1805-1881)
Date:
1865
Medium:
watercolor and gouache with graphite and scraping
Collection:
Drawings [1]
Dimensions:
Sheet - h:25.60 w:35.40 cm (h:10 1/16 w:13 7/8 inches)
Credit Line:
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession Number:
2009.3
Gallery ID:
not on view
Inspired by William Blake, Palmer developed a personal and emotionally charged style of landscape painting that celebrated nature as the product of divine creation. This watercolor of a spectacularly colorful sunset over the hills of Surrey was painted by Palmer toward the end of his life. An autumn sky heavy with rows of cumulus clouds shimmers in a pattern of pink and amethyst, as slivers of golden light emanate from the setting sun. The idyllic landscape is an elegy not only to a passing day, but to the brevity of life itself.
Inscription:
Signed, lower left in brown watercolor: S. Palmer
Verso: Never let drawings on London Board be thinned by removing paper from the back. / This drawing would be unchanged after 3 centuries if the frame were in / a folding case with a door - & unnecessary exposure to light avoided. / See Mifords [sic] in B. Museum / SP / apply moisture /
do not tear these off /