Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lucas, Samuel (1805-1870)
LUCAS, SAMUEL (1805–1870), amateur painter, born in 1805 at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, belonged to an old quaker family resident there. He was educated at Hitchin and at a quaker school in Bristol. Although he had early predilections for the profession of an artist, his religion at that time forbade an artistic education, and he was apprenticed to a shipowner at Shoreham in Sussex. But he managed to practise painting as an amateur, and after his marriage in 1838 settled at Hitchin, where he resided for the remainder of his life, devoting himself to his favourite art. In 1830 he sent to the Royal Academy ‘The Ship Broxbournbury off the Islands of Amsterdam,’ but he very seldom exhibited his paintings publicly. His subjects were mainly landscapes, carefully studied from nature, and he painted both in oil and in water-colours. He was an excellent ornithologist, and also painted birds, animals, and flowers. Some of his drawings of flowers were engraved in the ‘Florist.’ His pictures were much admired, and he enjoyed the friendship of many leading artists. Good examples of his drawings are in the print room at the British Museum, and there is a picture by him of ‘The Old Hitchin Market’ in the Corn Exchange at Hitchin. Lucas was attacked by paralysis in 1865, and died in 1870, leaving a widow and family.
[Private information.]