Turner to Monet Palmer’s landscapes are among the major
achievements of the British genre in the first half of the
nineteenth century. Though he was admired especially for his
early intensely visionary landscapes, Palmer’s later work is
more conventional, showing greater concern both for naturalism
and looking to the acknowledged seventeenth-century masters of
landscape painting. In Summer storm near Pulborough, Sussex
black clouds have gathered, the wind has risen and driving rain
is already falling, though there is a glimpse of distant
sunshine. In the foreground a herdsman gestures to prevent his
sheep stampeding off the road; his wife follows carrying a child
on her back and beside her is an unhappy yet faithful dog. To
the left, near a steadfast windmill and a ruined church, women
scurry to retrieve their washing. At the edge of the darkness a
horse-drawn wagon and a rider stoically proceed towards a
farmhouse visible beyond the mill. Within the darkness, sunlight
illuminates the travellers, the roadside