Palmer (Samuel)

London, The Cotswold Gallery, 1850 (but 1926).
originally commissioned in 1850 by the Art Union of London for its proposal to illustrate a series of twenty ‘Sonnets’, this plate was to be one of two submitted by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881). However, following much editorial distraction and diversion, only one of these, The Skylark, appeared in a later publication. This plate, composed to illustrate a sonnet by John Codrington Bampfylde, only finally saw the light of day, posthumously, in the 1882 publication, ‘Samuel Palmer, a Memoir’, by the artist’s son, A.H. Palmer.
It was Frederick Griggs, the architect-turned-printmaker, who championed Palmer’s work in the early 20th century, which in turn inspired the Goldsmiths School group of students in the 1920s, including Graham Sutherland, Robin Tanner and Paul Drury. Griggs had contacted Palmer’s son, who then lived in Canada, and who sent him several of his father’s original printing plates. It was in conjunction with an important retrospective of Palmers prints organised by Sir Frank Short, Professor of Engraving at the Royal College of Art, and Martin Hardie, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the V&A, where the exhibition was staged, that a few of these were selected to be reprinted one last time, in small editions of between 50 and 75 impressions, before the plates were cancelled by being scored through in order to preserve their limitation. Each bore the symbol, as here, of a small triangle to denote this final edition, and all were initialled by this triumvirate of Short, Hardie and Griggs.

Provenance: ex-collection of Mattei Radev (1927-2009), given by Eardley Knollys (1902-1991), artist, critic, and art dealer, member of the Bloomsbury Group, inherited from the music critic and author, Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville (1901-1965)..
123 by 102mm (4¾ by 4 inches).