National Gallery of Australia | Audio Tour | Turner to Monet: the triumph of landscape

Palmer’s landscapes are among the major achievements of the British genre in the first half of the nineteenth century. Though he was admired especially for his early intensely visionary landscapes, Palmer’s later work is more conventional, showing greater concern both for naturalism and looking to the acknowledged seventeenth-century masters of landscape painting. In Summer storm near Pulborough, Sussex black clouds have gathered, the wind has risen and driving rain is already falling, though there is a glimpse of distant sunshine. In the foreground a herdsman gestures to prevent his sheep stampeding off the road; his wife follows carrying a child on her back and beside her is an unhappy yet faithful dog. To the left, near a steadfast windmill and a ruined church, women scurry to retrieve their washing. At the edge of the darkness a horse-drawn wagon and a rider stoically proceed towards a farmhouse visible beyond the mill. Within the darkness, sunlight illuminates the travellers, the roadside stream and bri