This shimmering landscape was made at a key moment in John Linnell’s career, shortly after he had met and started working with the younger Samuel Palmer. It was from Palmer – and the older William Blake – that Linnell’s naturalism was tempered with something more vital and visionary. Linnell increasingly saw that divine revelation could only come by scrupulous observation. In the present limpid scene, Linnell has invested a view of Lymington Quay and the distant coast of the Isle of Wight, with a numinous quality, the clear early evening light illuminating every detail. It is a landscape that is both deeply felt and beautifully realised, a work that responds to the world of Palmer and Blake, but also looks beyond Britain to broader trends of European Romanticism.

More Information