Lonely Tower

Maker Samuel Palmer (British, 1805-1881)

Collections

British Drawing Highlights

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1880

Mediumopaque watercolor over traces of graphite on board

Dimensionsimage: 6 5/8 × 9 1/4 in. (16.8 × 23.5 cm.) sheet: 6 15/16 × 9 5/8 in. (17.6 × 24.4 cm.)

SignedSignature S. Palmer

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gilbert Davis Collection

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis is the final watercolor in a series of eight Palmer made to illustrate lines from John Milton’s poems L’Allegro and Il Penseroso. As a model for the drawing, he used the tower at Leith Hill in Surrey, which was near where Palmer’s eldest son had died. The impact of his son’s death is evident: the waning moon depicted here would have been visible at the hour his son died. The night sky shows a constellation that could have been observed on the night of his son’s death (2022).

Object number59.55.984

Terms