Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book provides an introduction to the development and content of Samuel Palmer's life and art. Written primarily for general readers, it also contains much of interest to art historians and to students at all levels. It is illustrated by many colour plates. An introduction, outlining the artist's life and background, is followed by commentaries on seventy-five of his works including, in addition to paintings, drawings important to the development of his work, and three etchings closely related to his painting. Palmer's intensely poetic vision, his debts to other artists, including Blake and Claude, his sources in literature, especially in the Bible, Milton, Virgil and Bunyan, are all discussed. His techniques are also described and related to individual works.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Lister, the leading authority on and the biographer of Samuel Palmer, has compiled a well-documented visual anthology surveying Palmer's work from his early visionary scenes of the Shoreham period to the evocative book illustrations of his last years. Although not an exhibition catalog, the book follows the format of Graham Reynolds's Constable's England (CH, Oct '83), providing a short but trenchant biographical and critical introduction followed by 75 illustrations, all well-reproduced in color. In his illuminating commentaries on the illustrations, Lister quotes extensively from Palmer's notebooks and letters, and makes many useful comparisons of works to show how the style of this important 19th-century English painter developed over his long career. Although the book is intended primarily for the general reader, Lister's use of sources and his analyses will be of interest to scholars. The book ends with a brief bibliography to serve as suggestions for further reading. Recommended for all four-year college and art research libraries, and for larger public libraries.-J. Riely, Boston University