Harvesting

c. 1851

Samuel Palmer

Associated Names
Samuel Palmer

Artist, British, 1805 - 1881

The image displays a rural landscape from an elevated viewpoint. The horizon is high in the image, showing distant hills and fields under a dramatic sky with clouds. Sunlight breaks through the clouds, illuminating the landscape. In the foreground, figures are harvesting around a hay wagon. The brushstrokes are detailed, capturing the trees and light. The color palette includes browns, greens, golds, blues, and grays. A tree with slender branches frames the scene on the right.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor and gouache over graphite with scratching-out and touches of gum arabic on paperboard

  • Credit Line

    Gift of The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston

  • Dimensions

    Overall: 37.8 x 51.5 cm (14 7/8 x 20 1/4 in.)
    mat: 55.9 x 71.1 cm (22 x 28 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1997.104.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Lister 1988, no. 504

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

A.H. Palmer, the artist's son; C.H.T. Hawkins by 1904; sale, Christie's, London, 20 February 1928, no. 47; Robert Dunthorne & Son; sale, Christie's, London, 26 July 1929, no. 31; Vicars; The Royal Artillery Institution, Woolwich; sale, Sotheby's, London, 27 July 1960, no. 77; Agnew's, London; Mrs. Gilbert Troxell, New Haven, CT until 1987; Agnew's, London; private collection, Great Britain; Agnew's, London; purchased 1997 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1993

  • Toil and Plenty, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1993, no. 72.

1997

  • English Watercolours and Drawings, Agnew's, London, 26 February - 21 March, 1997, no. 88.

2000

  • Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000-2001, 210.

2006

  • The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Great Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007

Bibliography

1988

  • Lister, Raymond. Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of Samuel Palmer. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

1993

  • Payne, Christiana. Toil and Plenty: Images of the Agricultural Landscape in England, 1780-1890. New Haven and London, 1993: 72.

1998

  • Brodie, Judith. "Samuel Palmer, Harvesting." Bulletin / National Gallery of Art, no. 19 (Spring 1998): 5-6, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right in brush and brown watercolor: S PALMER; by later hand, center verso in graphite: 77

Wikidata ID

Q64630395

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