Study for the Etching 'Christmas'

Details

SAMUEL PALMER, R.W.S. (1805-1881)
Study for the Etching 'Christmas'
with inscription by A.H. Palmer '[1st Sketch for/Christmas]' and '[Suggestion by/C/W/ Cope RA]' and 'Sq from/bottom' (in the margin)
pen and brown ink, heightened with touches of white, on buff paper with a blind stamp, squared for transfer with a subsidiary study for the figure (lower centre)
6 ¾ x 4 1⁄8 in. (17.2 x 10.5 cm.)

Provenance

The artist, and by descent to his son,
Alfred Herbert Palmer (1853-1932); Christie’s, London, 20 February 1928, lot 50 (4 ½ gns to Colnaghi).
with P&D Colnaghi, London, 1928.
with Nicholas Lott, Bath, from whom purchased in August 2006 for the present collection.

Literature

R. G. Alexander, A catalogue of the Etchings of Samuel Palmer,1937, Print Collectors Club, p. 54.
R. Lister, Catalogue Raisonné of the works of Samuel Palmer, Cambridge, 1988, no. 488, p. 169.

Exhibited

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, ‘Samuel Palmer; Catalogue of an Exhibition of Drawings, Etchings, & Woodcuts by other Disciples of William Blake’, 1926, no. 169, lent by A.H. Palmer.

Engraved

In etching, in reverse, by the artist, 1850.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Nathalie Ferneau Head of Sale, Junior Specialist

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

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Lot Essay

Dating to circa 1850, this drawing was based on the sonnet by John Codrington Bampfylde (1754-96):

‘With footsteps slow, in furry pall yclad,
His brows enwreathed with holly never sere,
Old Christmas comes to close the wanèd year,
And aye the shepherd’s heart to make right glad;
Who, when his teeming flocks are homeward had,
To blazing hearth repairs, and nut-brown beer;
And views well pleased the ruddy prattlers dear
Hug the grey mongrel; meanwhile maid and lad
Squabble for roasted crabs’ [apples].

The composition recalls several details of William Blake’s wood engravings for Pastorals for Virgil, including the pose of the shepherd and a similar cottage with attached sheep-pen from Blake’s illustration XVII.

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