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Sabrina

1856
Not on view
Palmer’s poetic image contemplates evening quietude in Wales. Painted to mark the artist’s election to full membership in London’s Society of Painters in Water-Colours, the image uses sunlight to emphasize the form of Sabrina, a nymph of the river Severn who oversees drinking cattle. Palmer took the subject from John Milton’s Comus (1637), a masque, or dramatic performance, set near Mount Plynlimon in central Wales—a region the artist had toured. Replicating the dazzling effects of sunlight, the image moves from detailed hills in the center distance to broadly rendered passages in the left and right foreground. Shell gold (pure metal mixed with gum) was applied to brighten leaves near the sun, while touches of gouache (a matte, opaque form of watercolor) highlight nearer forms.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Sabrina
  • Artist: Samuel Palmer (British, London 1805–1881 Redhill, Surrey)
  • Date: 1856
  • Medium: Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite, with reductive techniques, shell gold and gum arabic
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 21 15/16 × 30 1/8 in. (55.7 × 76.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Acquisitions Fund and David T. Schiff Gift, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.252
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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The Shearers, Samuel Palmer British, Oil and tempera on wood
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On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey, William Callow British, Watercolor
On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey
William Callow
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Wagonette Break #3703a, Brewster & Co. American, Graphite, pen and black ink, watercolor and gouache with gum arabic
Wagonette Break #3703a
Manufacturer Brewster & Co.
1881
The Herdsman's Cottage, or Sunset, Samuel Palmer British, Etching; second state or two
The Herdsman's Cottage, or Sunset
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1850
Stroh Violin, George Evans & Co. English, Mahogany and aluminum, British
Stroh Violin
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