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| Samuel Palmer Tree trunks 1824 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Landscape ca. 1825-35 wash drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"Palmer's expressed desire to 'never be a naturalist' placed him at an awkward angle to the mainstream of landscape painting in the age in which he lived. It was a time that saw great advances in empirical science, and much store was placed on the dedicated investigation of nature. For the most part it was understood that landscape, whether ideal or realistic in approach, based its rationale on detailed and accurate observation. By the time that Palmer was beginning his career, the main ground was being won by those who claimed that the landscape painter should not only begin with the faithful observation of nature (the common premise) but should end with this as well. This was the position proclaimed by Constable with his call for a 'natural painture'. His work had become, particularly since his successful exhibition of The Haywain in 1821, a rallying point for the supporters of the view that landscape should address the observable and the everyday. . . . Palmer, by contrast, followed Blake in believing that the naturalist perceived only what he referred to as 'visible creation', that is, the surface, rather than the essence of things. Such materialists could have no access to the 'higher realities' that lay for Blake largely beyond the access of direct observation and could be engaged only through the imagination."
– from Samuel Palmer : Shadows on the Wall by William Vaughan (Yale University Press, 2015)
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| Samuel Palmer Ruth returned from gleaning 1828 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Traveling in the Holy Land ca. 1835 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Villa d'Este, Tivoli 1837 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Street of the Tombs, Pompei 1837 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Rome from the Borghese Gardens 1837 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Saint Catherine's Fair, Guildford 1844 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer A harvest field ca. 1850 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Cornwall 1858 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer Woman driving sheep ca. 1860 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer The towered city 1868 sepia wash Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palemr The eastern gate 1879 sepia wash Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Samuel Palmer The waters murmuring before 1881 sepia wash Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"When an artist sees at last what he ought to do, and gathers himself up for the effort, I believe it is a sign that his days are numbered."
– Samuel Palmer