Early Morning 1825

Curator: This is Samuel Palmer’s "Early Morning," a drawing from around 1825. The medium includes ink, pencil, and watercolor on paper. Editor: There’s such an arresting sense of texture! Almost tactile, all these lines pressed onto the page. The tonality has a kind of sepia glow that’s also earthy and grounding. Curator: Absolutely, it captures a very particular vision within the Romantic movement, prioritizing intense personal feeling and a reverence for nature. Palmer belonged to "The Ancients," a group of artists inspired by William Blake, so their artistic choices were deliberately anti-establishment. Editor: Speaking of choices, look at the density! The mark-making and layering are really intriguing. The trees feel solid, almost weighty in their presence. I wonder how Palmer prepared the paper. Was it his own mix? Curator: It is worth noting that Palmer sought to transform mundane reality through what he called "visionary gleams," evident here in the almost dreamlike intensity he brings to an ordinary landscape. "Early Morning" comes from his Shoreham period, where he pushed back against the urban-industrial conditions emerging around London. Editor: The lines carry this dreamlike feel, it reminds me of labor--almost devotional labor, each stroke intentionally laid. There is an almost childlike quality too that pushes it towards expressionist aesthetics in a way that is pretty special for a piece from this era. Curator: Yes, he certainly imbued the Kent countryside with a unique spiritual quality and made something of a cult out of simple life. He even designed his own clothing while living there! A homespun rejection of fashionable society. Editor: A holistic material practice for his artmaking, it is deeply interesting to contemplate it! Curator: Indeed, an approach perhaps rooted in making, rather than merely depicting. Editor: Absolutely! It enriches our understanding of both Palmer’s technique and the socio-political influences at work. Curator: It’s so revealing to delve deeper beyond initial aesthetic pleasure.