Christmas, or Folding the Last Sheep

An etching of a night farmyard under a pale moon. A shepherd in a long coat stands with a dog at the right while sheep crowd into a fold, and a tall haystack rises behind a leafy tree on the left. Fine parallel hatching models the dark ground, the foliage and the moonlit sky.

Look closer: A lit lantern or small window glows on the left side of the stone wall beneath the tree.

Artist

Samuel Palmer

Date

1850

Medium

Etching; second state of five

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3081 × 3242 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of G. L. Winthrop, 1917