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拍品專文
On 30 September 1837 Palmer married Hannah Linnell, the eldest of John Linnell’s (1792-1882) nine children. On 4 October the couple left for their extended Italian honeymoon, during which this drawing was executed. They wintered in Rome and in May of the following year travelled to Naples. From their hotel – where Edward Lear and Thomas Uwins were also staying – they sketched the bay that ‘filled up’ their window, sparkling by moonlight ‘like diamonds on ebony’ (R. Lister, The Letters of Samuel Palmer, Oxford, 1974, p. 271). They spent July in Pompeii where both Hannah and Samuel prepared five drawings of the city and the volcano that had simultaneously destroyed and preserved the town in AD 79. At the end of their month-long stay they witnessed a minor eruption of Vesuvius.
Both Samuel and Hannah were particularly struck by the Street of Tombs, Pompeii. Lister, loc. cit. describes this as `one of the most pleasing of his early Italian works.‘ Samuel executed another view of The Street of Tombs, Pompeii from a different viewpoint, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Lister, op.cit., no. 305). There is also an accomplished drawing of the subject by Hannah, which was presumably drawn on the spot (see Vaughan, op.cit., nos. 106 and 107).
The view Palmer chose to depict recalls Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s description of the site, `From the gate stretched the long street of tombs, various in size and architecture, by which, on that side, the city is as yet approached. Above all, rode the cloud-capped summit of the Dread Mountain, with the shadows, now dark, now light, betraying the mossy caverns and ashy rocks, which testified to the past conflagrations, and might have prophesied – but man is blind – that which was to come!’ (E. Bulwer- Lytton, The Last Days of Pompeii, London, 1834, p. 135.)
We are grateful to Colin Harrison for his help with this drawing.
Both Samuel and Hannah were particularly struck by the Street of Tombs, Pompeii. Lister, loc. cit. describes this as `one of the most pleasing of his early Italian works.‘ Samuel executed another view of The Street of Tombs, Pompeii from a different viewpoint, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Lister, op.cit., no. 305). There is also an accomplished drawing of the subject by Hannah, which was presumably drawn on the spot (see Vaughan, op.cit., nos. 106 and 107).
The view Palmer chose to depict recalls Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s description of the site, `From the gate stretched the long street of tombs, various in size and architecture, by which, on that side, the city is as yet approached. Above all, rode the cloud-capped summit of the Dread Mountain, with the shadows, now dark, now light, betraying the mossy caverns and ashy rocks, which testified to the past conflagrations, and might have prophesied – but man is blind – that which was to come!’ (E. Bulwer- Lytton, The Last Days of Pompeii, London, 1834, p. 135.)
We are grateful to Colin Harrison for his help with this drawing.