Palmer , Samuel , 1805-1881 , painter

Born, Newington, London, 1805; educated at home and Merchant Taylors' School; took art lessons and exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution, 1819; met John Linnell, his future father-in-law, who gave him advice and instruction in art; became a close acquaintance of William Blake, 1824; moved to Shoreham, Kent, [1826-1833], painted in oil and made water-colour sketches; sketching tour in North Wales, 1832; exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Museum, 1832-1834; married Hannah, the eldest daughter of John Linnell, 1837; lived in Italy, 1837-1839; associate of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, 1843; exhibited many Italian drawings, later mostly English pastorals, illustrations of the Pilgrim's Progress' and Spenser, drawing from Milton, 1855; gave drawing lessons, and continued sketching tours, visiting North Wales, 1843, Margate, 1845, Cornwall, 1857, Devon, 1858, 1860; produced illustrations for Dickens'sPictures from Italy', 1846; began etching, [1850]; member of the Etching Society in 1853; member of the Water-colour Society, 1854; produced illustrations to Adams's Sacred Allegories', 1856; moved from London to Reigate, 1861, Redhill, 1862-1881; illustratedL'Allegro' and `Il Penseroso,' two poems of Milton; continued to exhibit at the Water-colour Society and produce etchings until his death; translated and illustrated Virgil's Eclogues, completed by his son, Alfred Herbert Palmer; died, 1881.
Publications: Shorter Poems of John Milton, with illustrations by Samuel Palmer and preface by A H Palmer; An English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil By Samuel Palmer, with illustrations by the author. Edited by A H Palmer (Seeley & Co, London, 1883).

Alfred Herbert Palmer (fl 1860-1926) was the painter's son. He published his biography of his father The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer in 1892. He destroyed many of his father's original papers, and emigrated to Canada.

Martin Hardie (1875-1952) was Keeper of the Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was also an etcher, water-colourist and writer, publishing works on Frederick Goulding and Samuel Palmer in 1928.

Geoffrey Grigson (1905-1985) was an author. His papers in this collection probably comprise working papers for his book Samuel Palmer: The Visionary Years, published in 1947.