{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O126808"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O126808/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HE0528/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014HE0528/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014HE0528","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP9896","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC8379","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O126808/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O126808","accessionNumber":"E.3449-1923","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Ruth returned from Gleaning","type":"popular title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"'Ruth returned from Gleaning'. Drawing of a woman, viewed from behind, walking through a valley. The valley depicted was drawn from life in the area around Shoreham in Kent, England.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Samuel Palmer","id":"A2333"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pen and ink","id":"x30618"},{"text":"wash","id":"AAT11051"}],"techniques":[{"text":"wash technique","id":"AAT182748"},{"text":"drawing","id":"AAT54196"},{"text":"heightening","id":"AAT53418"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink and wash, heightened by white","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2014HE0528","2006AP9896","2017KC8379"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"WS","id":"THES49603"},"free":"","case":"R","shelf":"81","box":"R"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Kent","id":"x29450"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1828","earliest":"1823-01-01","latest":"1832-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"date":{"text":"1829","earliest":"1829-01-01","latest":"1829-12-31"},"association":{"text":"exhibited","id":"x30227"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Presented by A. H. Palmer, Esq.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"29.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"39.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"The valley depicted was drawn in the area around Shoreham, Kent - what Palmer referred to as his “Valley of Vision”. His son, A. H. Palmer, has noted that 'A special visit to the Valley was made in order to complete this drawing, while under the full, potent influence of the place' (see references). \r\n\r\nThe drawing was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829. There is a small reproduction of the drawing in A. H. Palmer's 'Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer', 1892.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'Ruth returned from Gleaning'. Pen and ink and wash, heightened by white. By Samuel Palmer, England, ca.1828.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Vaughan, William, Barker, Elizabeth E., Harrison, Colin, et al. <i>Samuel Palmer 1805- 1881 : Vision and Landscape</i>. London : British Museum Press 2005","id":"AUTH354696"},"details":"no. 39","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Evans, Mark et al. <i>Vikutoria & Arubāto Bijutsukan-zō : eikoku romanshugi kaigaten = The Romantic tradition in British painting, 1800-1950 : masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. Japan : Brain Trust, 2002","id":"AUTH332409"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Catalogue of an exhibition of drawings, etchings & woodcuts by Samuel Palmer and other disciples of William Blake.</i> London, Pub. under the authority of the Board of Education, 1926","id":"AUTH354389"},"details":"no.58","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Palmer, A.H. <u>Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer Painter and Etcher</u>. Great Britain. 1892."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"p.245","free":"Michael Phillips, <u>William Blake : apprentice & master</u>, Oxford : Ashmolean, 2014. ISBN: 9781854442888.\r\n\r\n "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"William Vaughan, 'Samuel Palmer. Shadows on the wall', New Haven : Yale University Press, [2015]. ISBN: 9780300209853.\r\n\r\n123\r\nRuth returning from Gleaning\r\nc. 1828\r\nink and gouache\r\n29.4 x 39.4 cm\r\nVictoria and Albert Museum\r\nOne of the few exhibited works from the period by Palmer that can be identified. The biblical story of Ruth occupied him much when he was seeking to establish himself as a painter of religious subjects. Gleaning was a sensitive subject at the time. Traditionally, the poor had been allowed to gather the remains of the crop after the harvest. Modern farming methods were now preventing this. Palmer, a strong supporter of the traditional ways, may well have been seeking to emphasize the condoning of gleaning in the bible  as a critique of the immorality of the contemporary godless age that showed no concern for the poor. The extraordinarily muscular Ruth shows the ‘wonted outrageousness’ that he celebrated in his style. Like earlier figures in the 1824 sketchbook, this bears the imprint of Fuseli’s exaggeration. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"William Vaughan, 'Samuel Palmer. Shadows on the wall', New Haven : Yale University Press, [2015]. ISBN: 9780300209853.\r\n\r\nThe composition is dominated by a strikingly muscular lady whose left arm spreads out alarmingly to encompass a massive bundle. She strides across land with the questionable assistance of an inappropriately slender staff. This woman is the biblical heroine Ruth, who is normally thought of as gentle and demure. The Old Testament story of Ruth, the Moabite woman who gradually gained acceptance among the Hebrews through the decency of her behaviour, has a prominent place in Christian iconography. This is because she was the great-grandmother of King David and hence an ancestor of Christ. The humane and sympathetic treatment of her story in the book of Ruth was a further cause for her appeal. Presumably both these features encouraged Palmer to explore the story, as well as the fact that the narrative has a pastoral setting. Records from his notebooks show that he planned to depict several scenes from the story.\r\nThis particular subject shows the incident referred to in Ruth 17:2 when Ruth returned to the city with a ephah of barley. The significance of this is that Boaz, the farmer who was to be Ruth’s future husband and who already looked well on her, had ordered his men to leave handfuls of barley in his fields for her to glean as they worked. This is why Ruth had managed to glean so much barley, and this is how Naomi, her mother-in-law, deduced that Boaz looked on her with favour. The extraordinary gesture of Ruth, with her strapping arm grabbing the enormous ephah, is effective for stressing the nub of the story, though visually it might be felt to have led to a somewhat overplayed effect. In the vale below, Naomi can be seen waiting for Ruth to return home, reading by a candle, a sign too that this is the end of the day.\r\nThe landscape in which this all occurs has the high viewpoint and rounded forms of Palmer’s most primitive scenery. It does not appear to be of an actual place. However, the valley surrounded by steeply sloping hills in the background has affinities with the Shoreham area. Palmer himself described how he went to the village to complete a subject from the Book of Ruth, though it may not have been this particular picture he was working on.\r\nRuth’s extraordinary posture in Palmer’s picture emphasizes the problems he had with figures as this time. Biblical subjects require a mastery of the human form. Yet Palmer had little experience in this area."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Kent","id":"x29450"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Ruth","id":"N5043"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"x35642"},{"text":"valley","id":"AAT8761"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Book of Ruth (Old Testament)"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.3449-1923"],"accessionNumberNum":"3449","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1923,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-28","recordCreationDate":"2006-08-03","availableToBook":false}}