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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

More Artwork
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Opening the Fold, or Early Morning, Samuel Palmer British, Etching; third state of ten, retouched in graphite
Opening the Fold, or Early Morning
Samuel Palmer
1880
Opening the Fold, or Early Morning, Samuel Palmer British, Etching; third state of ten
Opening the Fold, or Early Morning
Samuel Palmer
1880
The Rising Moon, Samuel Palmer British, Etching; sixth or between sixth and seventh state of nine
The Rising Moon
Samuel Palmer
ca. 1855
The Skylark, Samuel Palmer British, Etching on chine collé; seventh or eighth state of eight
The Skylark
Samuel Palmer
1850
Christmas, or Folding the Last Sheep, Samuel Palmer British, Etching; second state of five
Christmas, or Folding the Last Sheep
Samuel Palmer
1850

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