Read Online Mysterious Wisdom by Rachel Campbell-Johnston - Free Book Online
Authors: Rachel Campbell-Johnston
Ads: Link
Praise for Mysterious Wisdom
Â
Shortlisted for the Biographersâ Club HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize
Â
Â
âOne of those rare biographies which is a work of literature: beautifully written, overwhelmingly moving. A great art critic, with an understanding of the human heart, has produced this masterpiece. It is one of the best biographies I have ever read of anyone: it captures the tragedy of Palmerâs life, and brings out the shimmering glory, the iridescent secrets of his Shoreham phaseâ A.N. Wilson  Spectator
Â
âShe tells in detail the story of his long and often sad personal life, skilfully interweaving it with the many changes in his professional interests and outlook, and in the process illuminating hitherto obscure aspects of his career. Th is is a valuable study ... excellentâ Â Literary Review
Â
âThe neglected artist Samuel Palmer is well served by this richly perceptive lifeâ Â Sunday Times
Â
âTriumphantly captures such ardent early Victorian piety with a vividness and an energy that carry the reader to the luminous heart of Palmerâs work ⦠Campbell-Johnston deploys her talent as an art critic to delineate the technical as well as philosophical progressiveness of Palmerâs work, yet the figure who emerges from Mysterious Wisdom is too exuberant and vivid for tragedy. He strides from the pages, as warm and tenderly eccentric as the paintings from his âCuriosity Portfolioââ  Times Literary Supplement
Â
âThe compelling strangeness of Campbell-Johnstonâs book, however, is that it doesnât depend on a claim to Palmerâs artistic greatness. Rather, itâs carried by the almost shockingly polarised light and shadow of his lifeâ Â Daily Telegraph
Â
âA brilliantly written book. Rachel Campbell-Johnston brings a novelistâs eye to the life of Palmerâ John Wilson, Â Front Row
Â
â[A] vivid new portraitâ Â Evening Standard
Â
âExcellent ⦠A hugely remarkable story engagingly toldâ  Sunday Times Ireland
Â
âThis gentle, sympathetic book will encourage people to discover a visionaryâ Eileen Battersby, Â Irish Times
Â
âYet if Palmer doesnât quite live up to our expectations of the Romantic artist, the close society the author describes is as rich in detail as his paintings and vivid with the life of its personalities, the now neglected first movement in Britain, The Ancientsâ **** Â Metro
Mysterious Wisdom
Â
The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer
Â
Â
Â
Rachel Campbell-Johnston
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
For Will whom I love and for Sebastian whom I have lost.
âThe painterâs and the poetâs struggles are solitary and patient,
silent and sublimeâ
Â
from an 1881 letter from Samuel Palmer to his son
Preface
The young man in the picture looks straight out at the viewer. But he is also at the same time staring into himself. His gaze is so distant that it seems almost drugged. What is he thinking? The spectator canât help but wonder about the world that lies beyond that broad, high brow.
Samuel Palmer was barely out of his teens when he drew his defining self-portrait. Itâs hardly the image you would expect from an upcoming artist at that time. He does not strike the pose of the ambitious young professional; make a bid for new clients by parading palette and brush. He hasnât bothered to shave or to straighten his collar; no comb has been run through his thick tousled hair. This is not a picture that presents a public persona. It is a portrait that asks you to look into a mind.
How can he conjure the visions that move through his entranced imagination, speak of the feelings that swell like an organ fugue in the heart? These are the problems that Palmer faced all his life as a painter. To try to understand them is to enter
Â
Shortlisted for the Biographersâ Club HW Fisher Best First Biography Prize
Â
Â
âOne of those rare biographies which is a work of literature: beautifully written, overwhelmingly moving. A great art critic, with an understanding of the human heart, has produced this masterpiece. It is one of the best biographies I have ever read of anyone: it captures the tragedy of Palmerâs life, and brings out the shimmering glory, the iridescent secrets of his Shoreham phaseâ A.N. Wilson  Spectator
Â
âShe tells in detail the story of his long and often sad personal life, skilfully interweaving it with the many changes in his professional interests and outlook, and in the process illuminating hitherto obscure aspects of his career. Th is is a valuable study ... excellentâ Â Literary Review
Â
âThe neglected artist Samuel Palmer is well served by this richly perceptive lifeâ Â Sunday Times
Â
âTriumphantly captures such ardent early Victorian piety with a vividness and an energy that carry the reader to the luminous heart of Palmerâs work ⦠Campbell-Johnston deploys her talent as an art critic to delineate the technical as well as philosophical progressiveness of Palmerâs work, yet the figure who emerges from Mysterious Wisdom is too exuberant and vivid for tragedy. He strides from the pages, as warm and tenderly eccentric as the paintings from his âCuriosity Portfolioââ  Times Literary Supplement
Â
âThe compelling strangeness of Campbell-Johnstonâs book, however, is that it doesnât depend on a claim to Palmerâs artistic greatness. Rather, itâs carried by the almost shockingly polarised light and shadow of his lifeâ Â Daily Telegraph
Â
âA brilliantly written book. Rachel Campbell-Johnston brings a novelistâs eye to the life of Palmerâ John Wilson, Â Front Row
Â
â[A] vivid new portraitâ Â Evening Standard
Â
âExcellent ⦠A hugely remarkable story engagingly toldâ  Sunday Times Ireland
Â
âThis gentle, sympathetic book will encourage people to discover a visionaryâ Eileen Battersby, Â Irish Times
Â
âYet if Palmer doesnât quite live up to our expectations of the Romantic artist, the close society the author describes is as rich in detail as his paintings and vivid with the life of its personalities, the now neglected first movement in Britain, The Ancientsâ **** Â Metro
Mysterious Wisdom
Â
The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer
Â
Â
Â
Rachel Campbell-Johnston
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
For Will whom I love and for Sebastian whom I have lost.
âThe painterâs and the poetâs struggles are solitary and patient,
silent and sublimeâ
Â
from an 1881 letter from Samuel Palmer to his son
Preface
The young man in the picture looks straight out at the viewer. But he is also at the same time staring into himself. His gaze is so distant that it seems almost drugged. What is he thinking? The spectator canât help but wonder about the world that lies beyond that broad, high brow.
Samuel Palmer was barely out of his teens when he drew his defining self-portrait. Itâs hardly the image you would expect from an upcoming artist at that time. He does not strike the pose of the ambitious young professional; make a bid for new clients by parading palette and brush. He hasnât bothered to shave or to straighten his collar; no comb has been run through his thick tousled hair. This is not a picture that presents a public persona. It is a portrait that asks you to look into a mind.
How can he conjure the visions that move through his entranced imagination, speak of the feelings that swell like an organ fugue in the heart? These are the problems that Palmer faced all his life as a painter. To try to understand them is to enter
Similar Books
