Tempera, chalk, gold, ink and graphite on gesso on paper
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/samuel-palmer-411" aria-label="More by Samuel Palmer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Samuel Palmer</a>
Coming Evening Church
Purchased 1922
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
astronomy
child
children
church
crowd
emotions, concepts and ideas
evening
family
family
features
fertility
Gothic
groups
hill
idyll
landscape
man
medieval
moon
people
periods and styles
religion and belief
religious
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spire
times of the day
townscape
townscapes / man-made features
universal concepts
universal religious imagery
walking
woman
wooded
worship
<p>Samuel Palmer was living in Shoreham, Kent – an area he described as the ‘Valley of Vision’ – when he made this painting. He presents an idyllic, mystical vision of rural life. Palmer depicts a ‘traditional’ rural community in harmony and guided by religion. He even uses an egg tempera technique inspired by early panel paintings to make the scene feel archaic. Yet, Palmer’s time in Shoreham coincided with the eruption of the ‘Swing Riots’ throughout the countryside. In Kent, agricultural workers protested against new farming methods and harsh conditions, burning haystacks and smashing machinery.</p><p><em>Gallery label, May 2023</em></p>
painting tempera chalk gold ink graphite gesso paper
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-10-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-15
William Blake and His Followers
Collection based display
24 November 2003 – 22 November 2004
2004-11-22
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-24
William Blake the Painter at Work
Collection based display
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
21 October 2005 – 28 May 2006
2006-05-28
21 October 2005 – 22 January 2006
2006-01-22
2005-10-21
British Museum (London, UK)
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
2005-10-21
Samuel Palmer, 1805-1881; Vison and Landscape
Loan-out
1 April 2006 – 16 April 2007
2007-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-01
Blake in the 1940s
Collection based display
19 October 2007 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
19 October 2007
2007-10-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-10-19
Visionary Landscapes
Collection based display
13 February 2009 – 30 October 2010
2010-10-30
13 February 2009 – 30 October 2010
2010-10-30
2009-02-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-02-13
Visionary Landscapes
Collection based display
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
3 July 2012 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
2012-07-03
Fundació “la Caixa” (Madrid, Spain)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
21 November 2012 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
17 November 2012
2012-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-21
Gallery 10
Collection based display
23 February 2024 – 8 September 2024
2024-09-08
20 February 2024 – 19 May 2024
2024-05-19
2024-02-20
Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, UK)
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
14 June 2024 – 8 September 2024
2024-09-08
2024-06-14
Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany)
http://www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de
2024-02-23
William Blake's Universe
Loan-out
Coming from Evening Church
support: 302 × 200 mm
frame: 355 × 251 × 59 mm
Purchased 1922
<p>This is one of Palmer's best-known works, painted while he was living in <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/the-ancients" title="Glossary definition for 'The Ancients'"><span>Shoreham</span></a></p>
<p> in Kent. Palmer lived in Shoreham for about seven years. To him it represented a kind of rural paradise, an ideal landscape, touched by a divine presence. He called the Darent Valley the 'Valley of Vision'. Palmer's pictures of this period are intensely personal, and often have a mystical, even visionary quality comparable to the work of William Blake (1757-1827). Palmer was greatly inspired by Blake's illustrations to Ambrose Philips's imitation of Virgil's <i>First Eclogue</i> (1821) and could have been describing his own work when he wrote of the Blake <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravings</span></a></p>
<p>: 'They are visions of little dells, and nooks, and corners of Paradise; models of the exquisitist pitch of intense poetry...There is in all such a mystic and dreamy glimmer as penetrates and kindles the inmost soul' (A.H. Palmer, <i>The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer</i>, 1892, pp.15-16).
<br/>
<br/>In <i>Coming from Evening Church </i>Palmer adopts a <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fresco" title="Glossary definition for 'Fresco'"><span>fresco</span></a></p>
<p> technique (really a form of <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a></p>
<p>) which is comparable to Blake's 'fresco' <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panels</span></a></p>
<p> such as <i>The Ghost of a Flea</i> (<i>c</i>.1819-20, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-ghost-of-a-flea-n05889" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05889</span></a>). The moonlit scene shows a winding procession of figures returning from Evensong with flowers in their hands. At their head are a young man and his wife, who holds their little boy by the hand. They are followed by the parson in his cassock and a group of villagers, including children and the elderly. Some of the figures, especially those at the head of the procession, probably derive from figures in Blake's <i>Songs of Innocence</i> (1789). The prominent church spire signifies a divine presence within the <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a></p>
<p>. This is emphasised by the gothic arches created by the gable ends of the houses and the branches at the top of the <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a></p>
<p>, a device that Palmer also employs in <i>A Hilly Scene </i>(<i>c</i>1826-8, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/palmer-a-hilly-scene-n05805" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05805</span></a>). The leaves of the left-hand tree partly obscure a full moon which casts an atmospheric glow over the scene. Below the moon is a row of steep hills, their <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a></p>
<p> distorted and their shape echoed by the cone-shaped gables, giving the picture a sense of organic unity. The vision is deliberately archaic and appears to have been inspired by early panel <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a></p>
<p> as well as <a data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniatures</span></a></p>
<p> in medieval manuscripts.
<br/>
<br/>In his 1824 sketchbook Palmer wrote a poem, 'Twilight Time', which appears to express some of the sentiments in this picture:</p>
<blockquote>
<br/>And now the trembling light
<br/>Glimmers behind the little hills, and corn,
<br/>Lingring as loth to part: yet part thou must
<br/>And though than open day far pleasing more
<br/>(Ere yet the fields, and pearled cups of flowers
<br/>Twinkle in the parting light;)
<br/>Thee night shall hide, sweet visionary gleam
<br/>That softly lookest through the rising dew:
<br/>Till all like silver bright;
<br/>The Faithful Witness, pure, &amp; white,
<br/>Shall look o'er yonder grassy hill,
<br/>At this village, safe, and still.</blockquote>
<p>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Raymond Lister, <i>Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer</i>, Cambridge 1988, p.77, reproduced p.77.
<br/>Raymond Lister, <i>Samuel Palmer: his Life and Art</i>, Cambridge 1987, pp.40-2, reproduced p.41.
<br/>James Sellars, Samuel Palmer, London 1974, pp.77-8, reproduced p.78.
<br/>
<br/>Frances Fowle
<br/>December 2000
<br/></p>

Summary
2011-05-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Samuel Palmer was living in Shoreham, Kent – an area he described as the ‘Valley of Vision’ – when he made this painting. He presents an idyllic, mystical vision of rural life. Palmer depicts a ‘traditional’ rural community in harmony and guided by religion. He even uses an egg tempera technique inspired by early panel paintings to make the scene feel archaic. Yet, Palmer’s time in Shoreham coincided with the eruption of the ‘Swing Riots’ throughout the countryside. In Kent, agricultural workers protested against new farming methods and harsh conditions, burning haystacks and smashing machinery.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults architecture astronomy child children church crowd emotions, concepts and ideas evening family family features fertility Gothic groups hill idyll landscape man medieval moon people periods and styles religion and belief religious society spire times of the day townscape townscapes / man-made features universal concepts universal religious imagery walking woman wooded worship