OXFORD, UK.-To coincide with the bicentenary of the great English Romantic painter Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), the Ashmolean Museum is delighted to announce the acquisition of one of his most poetic watercolours The Prospect (1881).

This is the first major watercolour from the artist's Milton series to have appeared on the market in many years. While three of the Milton watercolours feature in public collections abroad, there is not one in a British public collection. With the generous support of the National Art Collections Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, other funding bodies and the general public's magnificent response to the Ashmolean's Samuel Palmer appeal, this fine example of the English pastoral tradition will be preserved and placed on public display in the United Kingdom.

The Ashmolean's collection of works by Palmer is the most important in the world. It is especially rich in the early paintings and drawings from his Shoreham period, notably the haunting self-portrait and the unique group of six sepia drawings of 1825, which represent the "visionary landscape" at its most profound. The Museum's collection was formed largely during the 1930s and 1940s when Palmer's later work was unfashionable and unrecognised. Consequently the collection contains mostly early works. With no watercolours later than 1849 and only etchings representing the last thirty-two years of Palmer's life, the Ashmolean is now able to add to its collection a painting that illustrates his later accomplishments.

This exceptional watercolour is part of the greatest achievement of Palmer's later years, the set of eight large watercolours illustrating Milton's twin lyric pastorals L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, poems for which Palmer had always had a special affection and admiration. The watercolours were conceived as four pairs depicting the times of the day, each pair comprising an illustration to both L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. The Prospect, seen at midday, illustrates lines 69-80 of the ebullient L'Allegro.

The Milton series preoccupied Palmer for the last thirteen years of his life. He completed the first of the eight watercolours in 1868, and the final one on his deathbed. The Prospect was one of the last to be completed, and is, in many ways, a summation of his working life. The scene, although imaginary, combines reminiscences of Shoreham (Palmer's early base in Kent), in the foreground, of Naples in the panoramic view over the bay, and of the Italian landscape generally in the city on the gulf, and the shimmering castle on the hilltop.

The Ashmolean is grateful to the National Art Collections Fund for the award of £75,000, the National Heritage Memorial Fund for the award of £45,000, the MLA / V&A purchase grant fund for the award of £35,000, the Headley Trust for the award of £15,000, to the Friends of the Ashmolean, and to the general public for their generous response to the Samuel Palmer Appeal.