Lot 44
Samuel Palmer(London 1805-1881 Redhill)Portrait of George Richmond
Amended
6 December 2023, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £35,840 inc. premium
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Samuel Palmer (London 1805-1881 Redhill)
Portrait of George Richmond
signed and dated 'S.Palmer 1831' (lower left)
graphite on wove paper stamped with the blind stamp of Dobbs, London
21.8 x 17.3cm (8 9/16 x 6 13/16in).
signed and dated 'S.Palmer 1831' (lower left)
graphite on wove paper stamped with the blind stamp of Dobbs, London
21.8 x 17.3cm (8 9/16 x 6 13/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
With Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, where acquired in 2006 by the present private owner
Samuel Palmer was living at Shoreham in Kent between 1826 and 1835 where this portrait of his close friend George Richmond would have been drawn on one of the latter's visits to stay with him. They had met through their mutual friend John Linnell who also introduced them to William Blake, a formative influence in the artistic group they were to create with Frederick Calvert, Frederick Tatham and others which became known as the Ancients. Their visionary paintings ran counter-current to the mainstream artistic style of the day and drew much from the Italian primitives. Palmer embraced the sentiments of the group in his personal life as well, wearing his hair long, growing a beard and adopting flowing, 'archaic' clothing. In contrast Richmond, whose career as a fashionable portraitist was gaining ground in London, is shown in Palmer's portrait dressed in the high collar, silk tie and tailored coat of the day, the same attire we see in his self-portrait miniature of 1830 now in the National Portrait Gallery, London (no. 6586). The identification of the present portrait was first put forward by Raymond Lister presumably with that miniature in mind, and it serves as a record both of a friendship and of a particularly productive period in the life of both artists.
Richmond was the son of a miniature painter and showed precocious talent which won him a place at the RA schools at the age of 15. He made a number of trips to stay with Palmer at Shoreham in the later 1820s and they formed a close and enduring friendship. He fell in love with Julia Tatham, but having failed to get her father's approval to marry the two eloped to Gretna Green and married the year the present portrait was taken. Later in the 1830s Palmer married Hannah Linnell, John Linnell's daughter and the Palmers and Richmonds travelled to Italy together on a two year painting tour. Although the Ancients disbanded and the artists' painting styles took different directions, Palmer and Richmond remained close friends for life.
Saleroom notices
Please note the additional information on this portrait: Provenance With Robert Simon, US With Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, UK, where acquired in 2006 by the present private owner Exhibited London, Leger Galleries, Drawings from the Collection of Theodore Besterman shown in aid of the National Art Collections Fund, June, 1969, no. 57 (catalogued as a self-portrait by Palmer)
