Midday - Sheep at Noon. by John Linnell, 1792-1882

John Linnell, 1792-1882
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Midday - Sheep at Noon.

Original etching in black ink. 1818. Signed and dated in the plate, and also with Linnell's publication line: 'Publish'd March 1818 by J.Linnell'. Privately issued by the artist in what must have been a very small edition, impressions are now very rare.

Extremely fine rich but crisp impression. On pale cream laid india (chine appliqué) with a white wove backing sheet, as issued. Extremely fine original condition, not restored; the faintest suggestion of foxing in the margins only. Full margins. Sheet: 11 x 15 1/4ins. Plate: 5 1/2 x
9ins (140x228mm)

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

John Linnell made his reputation as a landscape painter, but he was also a very important patron to Blake. His daughter married Samuel Palmer, and it was Linnell who introduced Palmer to Blake and greatly encouraged his Virgillan and religious enthusiasm for the glories of the pastoral life.

Linnell was bought up in reasonable affluence and he was able to study as a young man under Benjamin West. He began to exhibit at the Royal Academy as early as 1807 and continued to do so until his death. Linnell was a passionate admirer of Blake, and when Blake was seeking money to help with the completion and issue of the series of engravings for the Book of Job Linnell was in a position to offer enthusiastic monetary support, bearing the costs of the publication.

In 1852 he felt able to move away from London to Redhill, and he had been instrumental in encouraging Palmer to establish the group of pastoral painters The Ancients in the village of Shoreham in Kent.

Linnell had always been an enthusiastic supporter of etching and engraving as media, but very few of his own prints express his pastoral vision, which was so close to that of Palmer. Midday - Sheep at Noon was etched as early as 1818, just before he
met Blake, and in its treatment of the pastoral theme it reveals how close Linnell was in inspiration both to Blake and to the vision that Palmer was to develop over the period from the 1820's onwards.