The Shepherd

Welby Sherman|Samuel Palmer|Albrecht Dürer

1828 · Engraving · Drawings and Prints

Sherman belonged to "The Ancients," an artistic brotherhood based at Shoreham, Kent in the late 1820s and early 1830s. His engraving of a youthful shepherd dreaming by the sea is based on a drawing by Samuel Palmer, who wrote in 1828, “If Mr. Sherman have finish’d his print he need not wait ‘til I see it, but may bring it out directly...as the more copies are sold the sooner the plate will be his own.” The work was never published, however, and only five copies are known. The mysterious image conveys Palmer’s admiration for Albrecht Dürer’s "Melancholia", as well as his closeness to George Richmond, a friend and fellow Ancient, whose own "Shepherd" engraving of 1827 describes a figure with a muscular twisted arm gripping a crook.

Artist

Welby Sherman|Samuel Palmer|Albrecht Dürer

Date

1828

Medium

Engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2013