3-071-255 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. Samuel Palmer, artist, 1881. '...this accomplished and genial artist...began to practise painting at thirteen years of age...By the advice of Mr. Linnell, his future father-in-law, he went through a course of figure and other serious artistic studies. He was introduced also to William Blake, who gave him decided encouragement...[Mr. Palmer] painted landscapes fraught with the spirit of poetry, and sometimes with an indescribable archaic charm...Mr. Palmer was married, in 1837, to a daughter of Mr. Linnell. They spent the two succeeding years in Italy, both working indefatigably with the brush, and laying by a store of elaborate studies...In 1853 he became a member of the Etching Club...To his friend, Mr. L. R. Valpy, he owed the undertaking of perhaps the most congenial task that could have been given him-the execution of a series of large drawings, illustrating selected passages from the exquisite minor poems of his favourite Milton. These works were the outcome of a long life of careful study, and of a mind tuned to harmony with all that is grand and beautiful. He lived just long enough to put the completing touches to the last of this noble series...[His] faculties of mind were perfectly preserved to the day of his death'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.