ONE summer’s day in 1824, the 19-year-old Samuel Palmer put his sketchbook in his pocket and walked to a place that haunted his dreams so much he came to call it his ‘Gate into the World of Vision’. What landscape could live up to his description—the Cumbrian fells, perhaps? Or the rugged scenery of the Peak? No, what entranced Palmer were the fields around the village of Dulwich, which he could reach on foot from London, and when he sat down to draw it was in front of unspectacular farmland. That particular day, the heaps of reaped corn lying in lines up and down the field caught his eye; he drew them twice on the same page, entranced by the patterns they made.
Within two years, he had moved to the small village of Shoreham deep in the heart of Kent, where he sketched ploughmen and shepherds, cornstooks and sheep-shearing, mossy-roofed byres and flowering apple trees. The natural forms he drew and painted are exaggerated, almost hallucinatory: each ear of wheat bulges happily, every farmer’s field looks ready to burst with joy. Coming afresh to the body of work he created during these years, anyone would think that South-East England of the 1820s was an earthly paradise of fecund harvests and contented farm labourers. In reality, it was a place of simmering resentment about terrible working conditions and agricultural mechanisation that was shortly to boil over into the Swing Riots.
この記事は Country Life UK の October 13, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Country Life UK の October 13, 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
