Customer Reviews

Samuel Palmer: Paintings and Drawings (Ashmolean Handbooks)

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Samuel Palmer as a young man was a disciple of William Blake, but had already struck out as an artist of the imagination. When he met Blake, Palmer confessed that he set about creating works of art "with fear and trembling." "Then you'll do," Blake said.

Harrison's book contains what look to me like superb reproductions, admittedly small, of early masterpieces such as the suite of six pictures that includes "Early Morning." Here also are some of the less distinctive landscapes of his long period (pictures from Italy, etc.); and magnificent etchings from late in his life.

Geoffrey Grigson's Samuel Palmer: The Visionary Years remains, in my opinion, the best first book to read about Palmer, but the reproductions in Harrison's book are much better and, in any event, Grigson is out of print.