Palmer, Samuel

(born Jan. 27, 1805, London, Eng.—died May 24, 1881, Redhill, Surrey) British painter and etcher. He began exhibiting conventional landscapes at the Royal Academy by 14. After converting to a personal form of High Anglicanism and discovering medieval art, he developed a visionary style, displaying a mystical but precise depiction of nature and an overflowing religious intensity, united by a vivid re-creation of the pastoral conventions. In these works he was encouraged and influenced by William Blake. As his religious fervour faded after 1830, the precarious balance between realism and vision was lost.

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