“The Sleeping Shepherd” by Samuel Palmer, RWS 1805-81

The Sleeping Shepherd

Samuel Palmer, RWS 1805-81

c.1856

Etching, printed on chine appliqué

4⅞ x 4⅛ inches (12.4 x 10.5 cm); backing sheet 13 x 11⅝ inches (33 x 29.5 cm)

An early proof in the third state (of four), before publication

See commentary below

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Commentary by Gordon Cooke

As with The Skylark, in The Sleeping Shepherd Palmer returned to a subject he had drawn and painted several times before, most recently in about 1854 (Lister 539). The essentials remain, although a dog in the Fitzwilliam Museum painting has been replaced with a book by the shepherd’s feet. Other elements have been altered in the etching: the labouring ploughman is brought nearer and birds fly above the land. It appears to be one of the works in progress referred to at the meeting of the Etching Club in November 1854, and went by other titles including ‘Early Ploughman’ before it was published in 1857.

The scene is set in the early morning, as the sun rises behind a hill on which oxen are pulling a plough while rooks swoop over a wood in a dip beneath. A flock of sheep stand huddled together. The shepherd lies on the floor of a shed outside which a vine winds around a trellis. The right hand side of the composition is shaded, while the left is touched by the early morning sun. The tranquillity of the foreground contrasts with the ploughman bent to his work on the distant hill.

Reference

Cooke, Gordon. Samuel Palmer, His Friends, and Followers.Exhibition Catalogue. London: The Fine Art Society, 2012. No. 8.

Lister, Raymond. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer. Cambridge, 1988. p.242 E5 iii/IV.

Last modified 26 May 2014