May 11, 2023 - Sale 2636

Sale 2636 - Lot 233

Price Realized: $ 1,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
SAMUEL PALMER
Opening the Fold (Early Morning).

Etching on antique cream laid paper, 1880. 153x215 mm; 6x8 1/2 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Eighth state (of 10). A superb impression of this scarce etching, with all the details distinct.

Palmer's (1805-1881) last finished etching, completed just a year before his death. He had planned a series of ten etchings to accompany the publication of his translation of the Eclogues of Virgil as his last major career project, but completed only Opening the Fold (Early Morning). Palmer made this etching to pair with the following verse from the Eclogues: "Scarce with her rosy fingers had the dawn, From glimmering heaven the veil of night withdrawn, Or folded flocks were loose to browse anew, O'er mountain thyme or trefoil wet with dew, When leaning sad an olive stem beside, These, his last numbers, hapless Damon plied." Lister 13.