Samuel Palmer

1 portrait

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Samuel Palmer

by George Richmond
watercolour and bodycolour on ivory, 1829
3 1/4 in. x 2 3/4 in. (83 mm x 70 mm)
Purchased, 1928
Primary Collection
NPG 2223

Sitterback to top

  • Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), Landscape painter and etcher. Sitter in 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • George Richmond (1809-1896), Portrait painter and draughtsman; son of Thomas Richmond. Artist or producer associated with 337 portraits, Sitter in 14 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This image by Palmer's friend, the visionary artist George Richmond, depicts Palmer as idealised and Christ-like.

Related worksback to top

  • NPG 2494: Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork ()

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Holmes, Richard; Crane, David; Woof, Robert; Hebron, Stephen, Romantics and Revolutionaries: Regency portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, 2002, p. 77
  • Ormond, Richard, Early Victorian Portraits, 1973, p. 356
  • Rogers, Malcolm, Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, 1993 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 August to 23 October 1994), p. 101
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 477
  • Schama, Simon, The Face of Britain: The Nation Through its Portraits, 2015-09-15, p. 392
  • Various contributors, National Portrait Gallery: A Portrait of Britain, 2014, p. 75
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 109 Read entry

    Samuel Palmer, a devoted follower of William Blake (1757-1827), is known and loved for his poetic and visionary landscapes, much admired by the twentieth-century artist Graham Sutherland, whose early work in etching followed in the same tradition. Palmer settled at Shoreham in Kent and was the central figure of a group inspired by the work and ideals of Blake and known as the 'Ancients' after their devotion to artists of the Renaissance, especially Dürer and Michelangelo, in preference to the 'Moderns', the more naturalistic painters of their day. George Richmond was one of the Ancients and painted this portrait of Palmer, with long hair and a gentle expression, suggestive of Christian symbolism.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1829back to top

Current affairs

Metropolitan police force of over three thousand paid, uniformed, professional policemen founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel.
Roman Catholic Relief Act grants emancipation; Catholics admitted to vote, sit in parliament and hold almost all public offices.

Art and science

Success of George Stephenson's Rocket steam engine at Rainhill Trials.
First London bus service licensed; the new 'box-on-wheels' contributes greatly to the expansion of the suburbs.
Apsley House completed for the Duke of Wellington by Benjamin Wyatt.
First Oxford and Cambridge boat race.

International

Andrew Jackson is elected President of the United States.

Comments back to top

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Humphrey Wine

17 December 2017, 10:53

A red chalk profile portrait of Samuel Palmer by George Richmond was sold at Christie's London, 16 Nov 2006 (209). That portrait, like yours, gives Palmer an apostle-like look and may well have been done around the same time.
The profile portrait appears to have been used by Richmond many years later for the head of one of the figures in his 'Funeral of the Blessed Virgin', 1858, City Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham.