These were all exhibited at the Water-colour Society in the following order: ‘The Lonely Tower,’ ‘A Towered City,’ and ‘Morning,’ 1868 (winter exhibition), ‘The Curfew,’ 1870 (summer), ‘The Waters Murmuring,’ 1877 (summer), ‘The Prospect’ and ‘The Eastern Gate,’ 1881 (winter), and ‘The Bellman,’ 1882 (summer). The last two were perhaps the finest of all.
Among other fine drawings belonging to this period were: ‘The Brother come Home from Sea,’ ‘The Chapel by the Bridge,’ ‘The Golden Hour,’ ‘Lycidas,’ ‘A Golden City’ (a dream of Rome), ‘Tityrus restored to his Patrimony,’ and ‘Sabrina.’
At Redhill he again took up his etching-needle and added three more plates (‘The Bellman,’ ‘The Lonely Tower,’ and ‘Opening the Fold’) to the ten he had finished at Kensington. Palmer delighted in etching even more than in painting, and his plates are like his drawings—visions of tender poetry, powerful and subtle in illumination, and finished to the last degree. For the Etching Club, besides his probationary plate, ‘The Willow,’ he executed seven plates. These were published by the Club: ‘The Vine’ (two subjects on one plate), in 1852; ‘The Sleeping Shepherd,’ ‘The Skylark,’ and ‘The Rising Moon,’ in 1857; ‘The Herdsman’ in 1865, ‘The Morning of Life’ in 1872, and ‘The Lonely Tower’ in 1880. ‘The Herdsman's Cottage,’ a sunset scene, was published as ‘Sunrise’ in the ‘Portfolio’ for November 1872; ‘Christmas’ in ‘A Memoir of S. Palmer,’ 1882; ‘The Early Ploughman’ in Hamerton's ‘Etching and Etchers;’ ‘The Bellman,’ by the Fine Art Society, in 1879; and ‘Opening the Fold’ in the artist's ‘English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil,’ published posthumously in 1883.
On this work of translating and illustrating the Eclogues he had been engaged for many years before his death. Of the illustrations, only one had been completely etched. Four more were in progress and were completed by his son, Mr. A. H. Palmer. The five plates, with photographic reproductions of the remaining designs, were published with the translation.
During his later years his circumstances were easier, his prices higher, his commissions constant, and little occurred to disturb the even tenor of his life. He saw few visitors, and seldom left home except now and then to pay a visit to Mr. J. C. Hook (now R.A.) at Churt, but spent most of his time in musing and meditating over his designs and reading his favourite authors. One of the very few new friends he made was Mr. J. Merrick Head of Reigate, his legal adviser and executor, who possesses several choice examples of his art.
After a life distinguished by its innocence, its simplicity, and its devotion to an artistic ideal for which he sacrificed all worldly considerations, Palmer died on 24 May 1881.
Palmer was one of the most original and poetical of English landscape-painters, and almost the last of the ideal school of landscape, which, based mainly on the pictures of Claude, was represented in England by Wilson and Turner, and many others. Claude, Turner, Blake, and Linnell had a distinct influence in developing Palmer's genius, but his work stands apart by itself. As a man he was loved by all who knew him. His circle of acquaintances was small, but his friendships were deep. His religious convictions were strong, his opinions on other points conservative in character, and often founded on slender knowledge, but they were always the result of much reflection. The warmth of his feeling and a genuine vein of humour added vivacity to his conversation and correspondence. His translation of the ‘Eclogues of Virgil’ is unequal and diffuse, but shows true poetical feeling and contains some beautiful passages; but his best prose (as in the preface to this volume, and his delightful letters, many of which have been published) is superior to his verse. A collection of Palmer's works was exhibited shortly after his death by the Fine Art Society, and seventeen of his finest drawings were lent to the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1893.
[Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer by A. H. Palmer; Samuel Palmer: Memoir by A. H. Palmer; Notes by F. G. Stephens on Exhibition of Palmer's works at the Fine Art Society in 1881; Shorter Poems of John Milton, with illustrations by Samuel Palmer and preface by A. H. Palmer; Roget's ‘Old’ Water-colour Society; Gilchrist's Life of William Blake; Story's Life of John Linnell; Life of Edward Calvert; An English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil by Samuel Palmer; Athenæum, 4 June and 5 Nov. 1881; Portfolio, November 1872.]
PALMER, SHIRLEY (1786–1852), medical writer, born at Coleshill, Warwickshire, 27 Aug. 1786, was son of Edward Palmer, solicitor, by his second wife, Benedicta Mears. Educated at Coleshill grammar school, and at Harrow, under the Rev. Joseph Drury, D.D., Palmer became a pupil of Mr. Salt, surgeon, of Lichfield, father of Henry Salt [q. v.], the Abyssinian traveller, and subsequently studied under Abernethy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1807, and graduated M.D. at Glasgow in
