Palmer (Samuel)

London, The Cotswold Gallery, 1879 (printed in 1926).
this plate, a typically exquisite crepuscular pastoral idyll by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), was first issued in 1879. It was Frederick Griggs, the architect-turned-printmaker, who championed Palmer’s work in the early 20th century, which in turn inspired the Goldsmiths group of students in the 1920s, including Graham Sutherland, Robin Tanner and Paul Drury. Griggs had contacted Palmer’s son, who 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)..
190 by 250mm (7½ by 9¾ inches).