Introduction to the popular 19th century British artist, £25.00
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The Lonely TowerThe Lonely Tower
Samuel Palmer
The Lonely Tower
'The lonely light
that Samuel Palmer engraved
An image of
mysterious wisdom won by
toil.'
W.B.
Yeats, 'The Phases of the Moon', from
The Wild Swans at Coole,
1919
On 11 July 1861 Palmer experienced what he later described as 'the catastrophe of my life': the death of his son Thomas More Palmer at the age of nineteen. In the following year, the family moved to a suburban villa in Redhill, near the Linnells' home. Palmer increasingly lived the life of a recluse and relations with his wife Hannah became distant.
Ironically, Palmer enjoyed growing critical success after the tragedy and undertook two major projects. The first was a commission from the solicitor Leonard Rowe Valpy, a collector who offered Palmer the chance to develop a series of pictures on a theme of his own choice. He chose a cycle of landscapes based on the early poems of Milton, which - although incomplete at the time of his death - are now regarded as his greatest achievements since the Shoreham period. His other major project was a translation of Virgil's Eclogues, accompanied by a series of his own etchings, which was also unfinished.
On a personal level, it seems that Palmer and Hannah were reconciled in Palmer's last years. However relations between Palmer and Linnell remained poor - a situation exacerbated by the former's financial dependency on his father-in-law. Palmer's friendships with the surviving members of the Ancients continued, though meetings became less frequent.
At the time of his death on 24 May 1881, Palmer's critical reputation was higher than it had ever been. A retrospective of his work was held later the same year in the Fine Art Society. Enthusiasm for his work has fluctuated since his death, but in recent years a bedrock of interest and affection has developed. Palmer's work continues to inspire writers and artists of the twenty-first century.