2-744-186 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Golden Hour, 1865. Inspired by William Blake, Palmer developed a personal and emotionally charged style of landscape painting that celebrated nature as the product of divine creation. This watercolour of a spectacularly colourful 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.