PALMER BEGAN HIS career as an artist at an early age and first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of fourteen. In 1824 he met William Blake whose influence helped to confirm his visionary approach to art. Palmer retreated into rural isolation in the village of Shoreham in Kent. Here he gathered around him a group of artists who were influenced by Blake, such as Edward Calvert (1799-1883) and George Richmond (1809-96), who called themselves the Ancients’.

Palmer produced his most distinctive work while living in Shoreham, and this striking watercolour with bodycolour and pen and ink is one of his finest from that period. Palmer’s technique was as unconventional as his vision and the paint used on this picture has been mixed with various varnishes and pastes to alter its thickness and sheen.



From England, c. ad 1830
Ht 19.7 cm
Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Henry Moore Foundation, British Museum Publications, British Museum Friends and Sir Duncan Oppenheim