The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour

1865
(British, 1805–1881)
Sheet: 25.6 x 35.4 cm (10 1/16 x 13 15/16 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Lister 646
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Around the time this watercolor was made, Samuel Palmer began to focus primarily on naturalistic landscapes that he hoped would be commercially successful in order to contend with the practical responsibilities of married life and family.

Description

Samuel Palmer developed a personal and emotionally charged style of landscape painting that celebrated nature as the product of divine creation. This watercolor of a spectacularly colorful sunset over the hills of Surrey was painted by Palmer toward the end of his life. An autumn sky heavy with rows of cumulus clouds shimmers in a pattern of pink and amethyst, as slivers of golden light emanate from the setting sun. The idyllic landscape is an elegy not only to a passing day, but to the brevity of life itself.
  • by 1879-after 1882
    George Gurney
    (sale, Christie's, London, March 17, 1883, no. 182)
    1962
    Private Collection, England
    (sale, Sotheby's, London, November 14, 1962, no. 41)
    1962-1963
    The Fine Art Society, London
    1963-1987
    Dr. Mark Fitch
    after 1987-before 2009
    (Leger Galleries, Ltd., London)
    ?-2009
    Private Collection, England
    2009
    (Lowell Libson, London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2009-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wilton, Andrew. The Fitch Collection. Exh. Cat. London: Leger Galleries, 1988. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 54
    Palmer, Alfred Herbert. Samuel Palmer: A Memoir. London: Fine Art Society, 1882 Mentioned: pp. i, 35, no. 83; Reproduced: facing p. 34 hdl.handle.net
    Palmer, Alfred Herbert. The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer, Painter and Etcher. London: Eric & Joan Stevens, 1972. Mentioned: p. 414
    Sellars, James. Samuel Palmer. London: Academy Editions, 1974. Reproduced: p. 133
    Lister, Raymond. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Mentioned: p. 203, no. 646
    Samuel Palmer: An Exhibition of Palmer's Works with a Leger Provenance to Celebrate a Century of Art Dealing. Exh. Cat. London: Leger Galleries, 1992. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 29
    Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned: p. 254; Reproduced: p. 255
    "Recent Acquisitions (2005-11) at the Cleveland Museum of Art." Burlington Magazine 1312, no. 154 (July 2012): 525-32. Reproduced: p. 530
    Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned: 114-15, 147, no. 38; Reproduced: p. 10 (detail), 115
    Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 163
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
  • {{cite web|title=The Golden Hour|url=false|author=Samuel Palmer|year=1865|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.3