Samuel Palmer

Today is the birthday of the English painter, etcher, and printmaker Samuel Palmer.
Samuel Palmer is regarded as the greatest artist of the English rural landscape. Palmer’s landscapes exude a strong connection with the land and nature. Samuel was one of the lead members of an artist group called The Ancients who followed the visionary artist William Blake in the final years before his death in 1827. The Ancients often expressed their work with a mystical view of nature. For instance, Palmer painted trees as if they had individual personalities.
It was Samuel Palmer who said,

“The visions of the soul, being perfect, are the only true standard by which nature must be tried.”

With regard to the garden, Palmer built a studio in for himself in his garden. He would access it by exiting the house through a secret door that looked like a bookcase.