The Rising Moon

The Rising Moon

Samuel Palmer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1850, Palmer began to make etchings and would create seventeen plates before his death in 1881. He used the medium to reprise and condense significant themes at the heart of his pastoral vision. "The Rising Moon" was the first of his large etchings and combines elements from the artist's early Shoreham period with others seen in trips to Italy and Devon. The attentive shepherd watching over his flock by moonlight recalls pastoral Sussex, the cypresses echo ones Palmer had sketched at the Villa d'Este, and the rolling hills recall those tramped over during summer tours of Devon. At this stage, between states six and seven, Palmer had nearly completed the image released to the Etching Club for circulation in 1857. The image conveys an intense attachment to subtle light effects, ranging from strong moonlight reflected by clouds to gentler tones used to define woolly sheep, and glimmering outlines that pick out medieval buildings within an enveloping landscape.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.