Water-colour by Samuel Palmer entitled 'Going to Sea', depicting figures on a sandy shoreline gesturing to three figures in a wooden rowing boat. England, 1858.

Composition showing two adults and two children standing on a sandy shoreline gesturing to three figures in a wooden rowing boat near to the shore. On the horizon, a large sailing can be seen to the right of the image.

Ellison Gift

To judge from labels stuck on the back of the picture, two earlier titles for this work were 'Going to India: the Blessing' and 'Return from India', corrected by a note reading 'Mr Palmer wished it to be named "Going to Sea" as it now is'. The references to India in these notes suggest that Palmer's intended subject was a topical one, related to the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8; there are other watercolours of about the same time with similar inspiration. The Indian Mutiny, like the Crimean War also in the 1850s provided several types of subject for the artist who wished to paint topical rather than historical drama. The composition and to a certain extent the colouring reflect Palmer's admiration for the Franco-Italianate classicism of Claude Lorrain, although the exaggeratedly craggy rocks are more like those in landscapes by Salvator Rosa, for example The Broken Bridge in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, which Palmer visited during his Italian tour of 1837-9.

FA.538