A free display of Samuel Palmer's visionary landscapes has opened at the V&A

A new free display, Samuel Palmer and Modern Art, has opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It is devoted to Samuel Palmer, the nineteenth-century British artist whose visionary landscapes were barely valued in his lifetime but later shaped a whole generation of twentieth-century artists.

How much is entry and do you need a ticket?

The display runs at V&A South Kensington from 10 October 2026 to 26 September 2027. Entry is free and no booking is needed. The works are shown in the Leighton gallery, Room 102.

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The museum address is Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Usual opening hours are daily from 10:00 to 17:45, and until 22:00 on Fridays, though some galleries may close earlier in the evening. Visitors start being cleared from the rooms 30 minutes before closing, so the last hour is not the time for an unhurried visit.

Who was Samuel Palmer?

Samuel Palmer lived from 1805 to 1881 and became known for unusual landscapes. Instead of reproducing nature exactly, he painted an idealised rural world: rounded hills, abundant harvests, shepherds, sheep, enormous moons and stars. The scenes read as a memory of a quiet England before industrialisation.

The young Palmer was strongly influenced by William Blake, whom he met in 1824. He joined The Ancients, a circle of young artists drawn to Blake's religious and spiritual ideas. In 1826 Palmer moved to the village of Shoreham in Kent and spent seven years there producing his best known work.

The V&A notes that the artist often moved away from naturalism deliberately. He used strong outlines, a restricted palette and symbolic forms. His moonlit landscapes, trees, churches and harvest scenes are not documentary views but images of harmony between people and nature.

What is on show?

Among the central works are the drawing The Primitive Cottage, the watercolours A Kentish Idyll, Nocturnal landscape with full moon and deer and A country road leading towards a church, and the late etching The Lonely Tower.

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Alongside them are works by artists who continued Palmer's tradition in their own way: Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Graham Sutherland, Robin Tanner and others. That selection explains the title: this is not only a retrospective of one master but an account of his influence on modernist British art.

Why has the display opened now?

The project marks two anniversaries at once. It is 200 years since the start of Palmer's Shoreham period, when his recognisable visionary language took shape. It is also 100 years since the V&A's 1926 exhibition, which revived interest in the artist and introduced his work to young British painters.

Before that exhibition Palmer was an almost forgotten figure. The V&A says the 1926 retrospective was decisive for his rediscovery. His rural fantasies proved especially close to artists watching roads, industry and large-scale farming change the English landscape.

What to combine the visit with

The V&A's main collection is also free, so a separate ticket is needed only for some temporary exhibitions. It is worth checking before you travel whether the gallery you want is open at that time.

Other current exhibitions and prices are collected in our guide to London exhibitions and art fairs in October. More free and inexpensive museums are in the ONLYWAY NEWS autumn museum guide.