Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/163

 

PALMER, SAMUEL (1805–1881), poetical landscape-painter, the son of a bookseller, was born in Surrey Square, St. Mary's, Newington, on 27 Jan. 1805. A delicate and very sensitive child, he was not sent early to school. His nurse, Mary Ward (afterwards his servant), was a woman of superior mind, and his father taught him Latin and Greek, and encouraged a love for the Bible and English literature, especially the older poets. Later he was sent to Merchant Taylors' School; but his father soon removed him, in order that he might study art, for which he had shown some inclination. When he was nearly thirteen years old he lost his mother, a shock from which he is said not to have recovered for many years. It was now settled that he was to be a painter. He received his first lessons from an obscure artist named Wate, and in 1819 was fortunate enough to have three of his landscapes accepted at the Royal Academy, and two at the British Institution. One of the latter (either ‘Bridge Scene’ or ‘Landscape—Composition’) was bought by a Mr. Wilkinson for seven guineas. In this year his address, given in the Royal Academy Catalogue, was 126 Houndsditch, but next year it was 10 Broad Street, Bloomsbury.

Palmer exhibited sparingly at the Royal Academy in 1820, and from 1822 to 1826, and at the British Institution in 1821 and 1822. During this period he formed the acquaintance of [q. v.], his future father-in-law, who gave him valuable counsel and instruction in art. Linnell introduced him to [q. v.], [q. v.], and (1757–1827) [q. v.] The introduction to Blake took place in 1824, when Blake was about halfway through his illustrations to Job. Though Blake was sixty-seven years old, and had but three more years to live, his imagination and power of design were at their highest, and had a profound influence upon Palmer. Their intercourse lasted about two years when there was a temporary breakdown in Palmer's health; and partly on this account, and partly in order to make designs from Ruth, he, accompanied by his father, left London for Shoreham, near Sevenoaks in Kent, where he remained for about seven years at a cottage named ‘Waterhouse.’

A small competence enabled them to live with extreme frugality in the simple enjoyment of a country life, passed in the midst of beautiful scenery and cheered by congenial companionship. Among their friends and visitors were George Richmond (now R.A.),  [q. v.]—both ardent admirers of Blake—a cousin named John Giles, and Henry Walter, an animal-painter. This little society went by the name of ‘The Ancients.’ The days were spent in painting and walking, the evenings in reading English poetry and music, and they were fond of nightly rambles. Palmer at that time played the violin and sang, but he afterwards gave up the practice of music to devote himself more exclusively to painting. At Shoreham he painted in oil, and made many water-colour sketches from nature and studies in poetical landscape, mostly in sepia and ivory black. The subjects were principally pastoral or scriptural, and were treated in a spirit of primitive simplicity akin to that of Blake's wood-engravings to Thornton's ‘Pastorals,’ which had also a strong influence on E. Calvert. In these years of poetical musing in the presence of nature, seen by the light of his favourite poets, the ideal of his art was formed. The only works exhibited from 1827 to 1832 were ‘The Deluge, a sketch,’ and ‘Ruth returned from Gleaning,’ which appeared at the Royal Academy in 1829. In 1832 his address in the Royal Academy Catalogue is 4 Grove Street, Lisson Grove, a small house bought with a legacy, and here he settled in this or the following year.

A sudden activity marks this period. In 1832 he took a sketching tour in North Wales, and sent seven works to the Royal Academy, in 1833 six, and in 1834 five, as well as a like number to the British Institution. About this time he paid his first visit to Devonshire, a country the scenery of which, with its ‘heaped-up richness,’ gave him all he desired in landscape. This visit is marked by a ‘Scene from Lee, North Devon,’ which appeared at the Royal Academy in 1835, and the exhibited drawings of the next two years tell of a visit to North Wales.

In 1837 Palmer married Hannah, the eldest daughter of John Linnell. The marriage, in deference to the views of his father-in-law and to his after regret, was performed at a registry office. His friend George Richmond having taken to himself a wife about the same time, the two couples went off together to Italy, where Palmer and his wife stayed two years. Mrs. Palmer made copies from the old masters for her father, and also sketched from nature. Some of her Italian views were exhibited at the