The Towered City; The Haunted Stream

Physical description

View across a river, with an arched bridge, to a city featuring buildings with towers. There is a tree in the foreground to the left of the image and a crescent moon in the centre of the sky. With pencil studies and notes by the Artist on the scheme of light and shade.

Place of Origin

England, Great Britain (made)

Date

ca. 1868 (made)

Artist/maker

Samuel Palmer, born 1805 - died 1881 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

Sepia wash with white body colour on card

Marks and inscriptions

Pencil studies and notes by the Artist on the scheme of light and shade.

Dimensions

Height: 26 cm, Width: 42.3 cm

Object history note

Previously known as 'The Haunted Stream'(?).

Descriptive line

'The Towered City', View across a river, with an arched bridge, to a city featuring buildings with towers. Water-colour by Samuel Palmer, ca.1868.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Vaughan, William, Elizabeth E. Barker and Colin Harrison, eds. Samuel Palmer 1805-1881: Vision and Landscape. London: The British Museum Press, 2005. 256 p., ill. (chiefly col.). Catalogue of the exhibition held at the British Museum, 12 October 2005 – 22 January 2006. ISBN 0714126411. Cat. no. 149, p.230, illus.
The full text for the entry is as follows:
‘149*
A Towered City or The Haunted
Stream, c.1868
Brown wash with white body colour on
card, 20.2 x 28.4 cm (17 15/16 x 11 3/16 in)
Squared in pencil

Inscribed with lengthy notes: see Lister

Lit: Lister M13
London, Victoria and Albert Museum,
1318-1925
As the squaring and notes would suggest,
this is a study for cat. 150. While the
overall composition is very similar,
Palmer pays more attention in the study
to the moon and to the relieving of the
arch. The reduction of these, together
with the adding of a ‘purplish gloom’ in
the finished work served to throw greater
focus on the ‘Towred city’. Palmer
reported the change in a letter of
6 November 1867 to Valpy (see cat. 150).
It is perhaps for this reason that the title
shifted from the earlier Haunted Stream to
A Towered City.’
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.
The full text of the entry is as follows:

'DESIGNS FOR VIRGIL AND MILTON

ILLUSTRATIONS TO MILTON

First designs for illustrations to Milton.

If justice is to be done to these and to their designer, it is important to bear in mind that he worked upon them and invented them almost invariably after dark; especially in the long winter evenings. They were purposely done in complete silence at “blessed green-tea-time” and by the light of a single oil-lamp – light which would have been considered hopelessly inadequate now. Little attention seems to have been given to the difficulties of the old artists who had to work for long hours by artificial light. Aimé Argand revolutionized the subject of oil-lamps in 1784 by his circular burner and wick. In 1798 Carcel invented a lamp in which the oil was raised by clockwork. Out of the Carcel and Stokes lamp (in which the oil was raised by a spring) grew the French “Modérateur,” which numbers of people, now living, have wound up. It was popular and reliable, but, according to modern notions, costly and utterly inadequate, although the cost of light had been reduced by the use of colza instead of sperm oil. Candles, from tallow “dips” in the cottage to great cone-shaped wax-lights in public places, held their own still. It was a crime to make tallow candles at home, but people in remote places made them, at their peril, in moulds of bamboo or old gun-barrel. On the subject of candles Cobbett had much to say, and he deplored the passing of the rushlight, the art of making it, and its iron stand and clip. In his own childhood it was the only light in his grandmother’s cottage. Small oil-lamps on gimbals were sometimes carried about instead of candles. One of the first duties taught to a child was to hold a candle upright. Joseph Gillott, the famous Art patron and pen-maker, gave much attention to the ingenious French oil-lamps which preceded the “Moderator,” and imported them to give his artist friends, including Linnell. It was assuredly one of the problems of the struggling painter such as Palmer, who had to save pennies after he returned from Italy, how to get through his work in the dark and foggy winter days of London before the days of the snuffles plaited wick upon which so much time and ingenuity were spent. I can still remember the anxiety about “thieves in the candle,” “guttering” through draughts, and the importance of timely snuffing, in order to save the precious tallow. To be seen as their designer imagined them, saw them himself and wished them to be understood, none of Palmer’s preliminary designs and chiaroscuro blots must be brilliantly lighted. These designs were produced with the minimum of manual work – work which may appear coarse and careless in a “good” light. But they are the ripe fruit of the maximum of mental work of a very peculiar kind, and the striving of a whole lifetime after certain ideals. The drawing materials and the handiwork were unconsidered incidents. Such a question as “How shall I represent this?” or “What did Milton mean by that?” never arose at all. The imagination was away in countries far more real than the cosy room and the flickering fire. So long as the light is strong enough to show technical imperfections that light is the wrong light. To appreciate Palmer’s objects and ideals, the same dim light as that in which he worked must be resorted to. This applies, in a measure, to all his works, which have often lost more or less of their proper appeal because of a light far brighter than that of the small rooms in which they were done. It must not be forgotten that he never had a studio. I suggest these things, not at random, but as the result of many experiments, spread over the years, with Argand’s gas burner, candles, duplex petroleum lamps, powerful modern electric bulbs and diffused daylight of varying strength. – A.H.P.

Note: - The paper of No.s 152-155 was prepared by a coat of common paste, and the work was often done with the moistened blade of a pen knife.

[ ... ]

153. Towered City. (Plate XXIV.)
“Towred cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men.”
L’Allegro.

The finished design is reproduced as plate 4 in The Shorter Poems of John Milton. With pencil studies and notes by the Artist on the scheme of light and shade.
Sepia wash. Size of sheet (10 ¼ x 16 ¼). E.1318-1925.
Presented by A. H. Palmer, Esq.'

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Drawings, Etchings & Woodcuts by Samuel Palmer and other Disciples of William Blake (Victoria and Albert Museum 20/10/1926-31/12/1926)
Samuel Palmer. Vision and Landscape (British Museum 21/10/2005-22/01/2006)

Materials

Card; Body colour; Sepia wash

Techniques

Painting

Subjects depicted

Trees; Bridge; Cities; Towers; Streams

Categories

Paintings

Collection code

PDP