Samuel Palmer’s etching, “The Willow”

Samuel Palmer (1805–81)

“The Willow”, 1850, from “The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer”, by A. H. Palmer, 1892, probably printed by F. Goulding.

Etching on cream wove paper

Size: (sheet) 22.5 x 14.5 cm; (plate) 12 x 8.1 cm; (image) 9 x 6.8 cm

Signed and dated in the plate (lower left): “Samuel Palmer 1850”.

State ii (of iii)

(Note:  Following the edition published by AH Palmer, of which this impression is a part, there is a second edition of 75 printed by Frank Short and others in 1926. After this final edition the plate was cancelled. To distinguish the first state from the second state, according to the V&A, “In the first state, there is a white streak across the sky, running from the edge of the plate to the tree, 2 mm. above the cumulus cloud on the left.)

The British Museum offer the following description of this print:

“Tree on the edge of a stream in which two cows stand. 1850 Etching” (http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1416923&partId=1&searchText=samuel+palmer+the+willow&page=1)

Lister 1988 E.1.II (Lister, Raymond, “|Catalogue raisonné of the works of Samuel Palmer”, Cambridge, 1988)

Condition: crisp and well-inked impression with generous margins in very good condition. There are pencil notations from previous collectors and remnants of mounting tape at the edges of the sheet (recto) and collector’s stamps verso.

I am selling this original Samuel Palmer etching for the total cost of AU$678 (currently US$517.14/EUR466.19/GBP391 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing a print by one of Britain’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

This etching was executed by Palmer on his admission to the Etching Club, 1850.

The V&A offer the following interesting insight by AH Palmer:

“It should be noted that the tree in this etching was practically copied from a careful water-colour study made from nature, and of a much larger size. Such a proceeding was very rare in any of Palmer's work. In this case, it may have been due, partly to a feeling of timidity in a new process, or, partly to a prudent wish not to endanger his election by anything too characteristic or ambitious.”

(Taken from: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Drawings, Etchings & Woodcuts by Samuel Palmer and other Disciples of William Blake October 20 - December 31, 1926. London : Published under the authority of the Board of Education, 1926. Publication No. 178 E.I.D. p.56) (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O827230/the-willow-print-palmer-samuel/)