A nice impression of Palmer’s etching “Christmas”, signed within the plate. Inscription below title reads “From Bampfylde’s Sonnet” a reference to the inspiration for the print, lines from a poem written by John Codrington Bampfylde (1754-1796):

Old Christmas comes, to close the wanéd year,
And aye the shepherd’s heart to make right glad;
Who, when his teeming flocks are homeward had,
To blazing hearth repairs, and nut-brown beer;

Although etched in 1850, this plate remained unpublished during Samuel Palmer's lifetime. This impression is from the first published edition, issued in Samuel Palmer, A Memoir by A.H. Palmer in 1882.

Samuel Palmer (1805 – 1881) was a visionary artist and contemporary of William Blake. A key figure in British Romanticism he was also a prolific writer as well as a watercolourist, etcher and printmaker. Palmer is best known for his early works executed at Shoreham where he lived between 1826 to 1835. Introduced to William Blake by John Linnel (whose daughter he would later marry) Palmer and artists George Richmond and Edward Calvert formed a group named The Ancients who were characterised by their admiration for the work of William Blake and their attraction to archaism in art. Like many great artists, it was not until after death that the works of Samuel Palmer were rediscovered and finally afforded the attention they deserved. Although his watercolours were popular in England at the time, Palmer struggled financially throughout his life time and had to divert much of his attentions to teaching to support himself and his wife, Hannah Linnel. After his death in 1881, Samuel Palmer was largely forgotten, his surviving son, Alfred Herbert Palmer, even went as far as to burn a large portion of his fathers work in 1901, stating that: "Knowing that no one would be able to make head or tail of what I burnt; I wished to save it from a more humiliating fate". In 1926 Martin Hardie curated a show at the Victoria and Albert Museum entitled Drawings, Etchings and Woodcuts made by Samuel Palmer and other Disciples of William Blake. This kick-started the revival of interest in Palmer’s work which subsequent retrospective exhibitions and publications have continuously reinforced throughout the rest of the 20th century. The Shoreham work in particular has had a notable influence on several important 20th century artists such as Frederick Landseer Griggs, Robin Tanner, Graham Sutherland, Paul Drury and Eric Ravilious.

Lister E. 4, iv/v

Condition: Good clean impression. Light toning and binding wrinkles to margins, not affecting plate or image.