Church with a Bridge

The present rapidly handled sketch relates to a more detailed drawing showing the church across the water, framed by arching trees forming almost a gothic arch and with a bridge (now Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Lister no. 122). A similar church with its soaring steeple, as if pointing to heaven can be found in other works including Coming from Evening Church, now in the Tate Gallery, London and A Country Road Leading towards a Church, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, although both lack the body of water in the present watercolour.

This work is characteristic of the work being produced by Palmer during his Shoreham Period in c. 1830, with bold a combination of sweeping and staccato brushstrokes.