PALMER, SAMUEL. (1805-1881). British landscape painter and printmaker. ALS. (“Saml. Palmer”). 2pp. 8vo. London, N.d. To British artist, art dealer and antiquarian HENRY MOGFORD (1787-1874).
“If Mr. Gambard [sic. Gambart] comes to the gallery, will you have the goodness to give him the accompanying drawing and the note directed to him. I had nothing to send but the above drawing which belongs to Mr. Gambard & I should not like it to be exhibited unless Mr. Gambard wishes it… Fith [?] of drawing The Pastoral Valley Samuel Palmer 6 Donro Place, Victoria Road, Kensington”
A self-taught artist, Palmer was greatly influenced by the works of William Blake, after being introduced to the artist in 1824. Together with artists George Richmond and Edward Calvert, dubbed “The Ancients,” Palmer lived in a cottage in the Kent village of Shoreham nicknamed “Rat Abbey” and met regularly with Blake, at what his acolytes called the “House of the Interpreter.” The Ancients were the first artistic brotherhood in England, a forerunner of such examples as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Many of Palmer’s works from this period were inspired by his nighttime strolls with fellow “Ancients” through the Darent Valley which he referred to as the “Valley of Vision.” By the mid-1830s, Palmer had moved to London, eschewing his mystical and idealistic portrayals of the English countryside for more conventional and commercially viable scenes. He found critical success with such watercolors as The Lonely Tower (1879) and A Dream in the Apennine (c.1864), for his watercolor illustrations published with John Milton’s poems L’Allegro and Il Penseroso and for his published etchings.
