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The Bellman

Print
1879 (etched)
Artist/Maker
Palmer, Samuel (etcher)
Palmer, Samuel (artist)
Place of origin
England (etched)

Etching of a night scene: a bellringer walks through a quiet village as the moon rises. Moonlight outlines the roofs of the houses and the horns of cattle lying in the lee of the hedge.
Jagged outline of crags immediately in front of the moon more sharply defined than in previous states. Slight alterations have been made to the sky in accordance with the touching of working proof 3 (not in the V&A collection).

Object details

Category
Prints
Object type
Print
TitleThe Bellman (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Etching print on paper
Printing Ink
Paper
Etching
Brief description
'The Bellman', a night scene showing a bellringer walking through a village as the moon rises. Etching by Samuel Palmer, England, 1879.
Physical description
Etching of a night scene: a bellringer walks through a quiet village as the moon rises. Moonlight outlines the roofs of the houses and the horns of cattle lying in the lee of the hedge.
Jagged outline of crags immediately in front of the moon more sharply defined than in previous states. Slight alterations have been made to the sky in accordance with the touching of working proof 3 (not in the V&A collection).
Dimensions
  • Plate impression height: 19.1cm
  • Plate impression width: 25.1cm
Taken from the dimensions given in the Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of the Prints, Drawings, Paintings & Photographs Collections and converted from inches to centimetres.
Production typeProof
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'S.PALMER. INV. ET. FEC. MEAD VALE. REDHILL 1879' (Signed)
  • 'Samuel Palmer' (In pencil.)
  • 'A. H. P. Private Press 9,6,79. Proof before Remarque' (Pencilled in lower margin, in the writing of A. H. Palmer.)
Credit line
Presented by Mrs J. Merrick Head
Object history
The finished design was reproduced as plate 6 in The Shorter Poems of John Milton with Twelve Illustrations by Samuel Palmer, Painter and Etcher, 1889.

Plate cancelled in 1926.
Production
Attribution note: Proof before letters
Subjects depicted
Night Scenes, Nocturns
Villages
Bell-Ringers
Moon
Cattle
Hedge
Literary reference'Il Penseroso' by John Milton.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Catalogue of an exhibition of drawings, etchings & woodcuts by Samuel Palmer and other disciples of William Blake. London, Pub. under the authority of the Board of Education, 1926 214
  • 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. pp.82-83.
  • 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.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1919, London: Printed Under the Authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1894-1919

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O827220/the-bellman-print-palmer-samuel/
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