Printmakers You Should Know: Fanny Palmer

I was recently in Philadelphia, where I had the opportunity to check out the fantastic exhibition American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. I saw hundreds of marvelous pieces by dozens of American artists, some of this household names (well, as much as American artists can be) such as Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and John Singer Sargent, as well as John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Maurice Prendergast. There were also many names I didn't know, including quite a few women artists. One painter, however, was someone whose name I first encountered during my days at Shelburne Museum, and she also happens to be the printmaker we'll be looking at today: Fanny Palmer (1812-1876).

Fanny Palmer, image courtesy of  civilwarwomenblog.com/fanny-palmer/

Frances Flora Bond was born to an affluent family in England. Like most privileged women of her time, she was educated in the arts, including watercolor painting, literature, and music. After marrying Edmund Seymour Palmer in 1832, she had two children, a son and daughter. Shortly after her marriage, however, Frances and her family began experiencing financial troubles, so she turned to her artistic talents, once a symbol of leisurely refinement, to make a living. In this case, she applied her watercolor skills to the burgeoning lithographic print industry, as watercolors could be easily translated to the lithographic stone without losing too much of the original character of the composition.

Fanny Palmer, Samuel Fleet Homestead, Brooklyn, ca. 1850. Image courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Flora_Bond_Palmer

Palmer initially went into printmaking with her husband, Edmund, and they opened a business together. Palmer supplied the compositions, while Edmund served as printmaker. While they achieved critical acclaim, funding was still lacking, so they immigrated to the United States in 1844 in search of new opportunities. After a series of other business endeavors, including teaching, printing, and making wax flowers, Palmer had a chance to show off her artistic versatility when she created a series of lithographs documenting the Mexican War. These prints proved that she was far more than a decorative flower painter, and while her and her husband's company ultimately failed, her work did catch the attention of Nathaniel Currier, who after meeting James Ives in 1857 would form the most famous of America's lithographic publishers, Currier and Ives. Recognizing Palmer's talents, Currier hired her on.

Fanny Palmer, Woodcock Shooting, 1852, published by N. Currier. Image courtesy of https://bjws.blogspot.com/2014/03/hunting-shooting-in-19th-century-america.html

Fanny Palmer, American Country Life, 1855, published by Nathaniel Currier. Image courtesy of http://www.philaprintshop.com/currlist.html

Between 1849-1868 Palmer would go on to create about two hundred lithographic designs for Currier and Ives, specializing primarily in landscape and genre scenes, including a well-received hunting series. Sometimes she created the compositions and handed them off to printers to be lithographed, while other times she appears to have been directly involved in the printing process itself. Not surprisingly, perhaps, themes of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion influenced quite a few of her landscapes.Contemporary technologies such as steamboats and trains also appear regularly in her work.

Fanny Palmer, Across the Continent: Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way, 1868, published by Currier and Ives. Images courtesy of https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/art-object-page.66574.html

Fanny Palmer, A Midnight Race on the Mississippi, 1860, published by Currier and Ives, image courtesy of http://oldprintshop.com/product/140853?inventoryno=43896&itemno=6

Fanny Palmer, American Express Train, 1864, published by Currier and Ives, image courtesy of http://oldprintshop.com/product/38817?inventoryno=20034&itemno=3

The landscapes were the images that I found in the collections of Shelburne Museum while I was a curatorial fellow there, and though I never used them in any of my exhibitions, I appreciated Palmer's technical skill and compositional sense. She usually signed her works F.F. Palmer, echoing the tradition for women of the time to use their initials rather than their names to disguise their gender. A few of them have her full name, however, and that was how she first caught my attention.

Fanny Palmer, Landscape, Fruit and Flowers, 1862, published by Currier and Ives, image courtesy of  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Flora_Bond_Palmer

I would have definitely used this print if it were in the collection. Landscape, Fruit, and Flowers is considered one of Palmer's masterpieces, and you can definitely see why. Its a visual and sensory explosion right out of the 17th century Dutch tradition, with Palmer ably demonstrating her ability to draw a variety of different subjects. The hand coloring only enhances the delicate beauty of the composition.

Palmer didn't limit herself to feminine landscapes or florals either. The watercolor I saw in Philadelphia depicting an incident from the Civil War, and it would have been right at home in my 2013 exhibition The Art of Peril, which looked at 19th century depictions of fires, shipwrecks and other disasters.

Palmer's artistic production dwindled significantly after 1868. Some speculate that she was in prolonged mourning for her husband, others suggest that she no longer experienced the creative freedom at Currier and Ives that she was accustomed to and left out of frustration. Regardless, she lived with her sister Maria until her death from tuberculosis in 1876.

Fanny Palmer, Winter Pastime, 1855, printed by Nathaniel Currier, image courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Flora_Bond_Palmer

Palmer isn't especially well known today, partly I suspect because of her association with Currier and Ives, which has often been dismissed as a producer of sentimental, commercial images rather than high art. Nevertheless, she is remarkable for being one of the first American women to make a living from her art, and played a seminal role in the development of American lithography. She is definitely a printmaker you should know.

Fanny Palmer, View of the Astoria, 1862, published by Currier and Ives, image courtesy of http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/category/preservation

Want to learn more?

Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. "The Early Career of Frances Flora Bond Palmer." American Art Journal; Vol 17 (1985): 71-88

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Flora_Bond_Palmer

Peters, Harry T. Currier & Ives: Printmakers to the American People. New York, 1942

http://www.avictorian.com/Palmer_Fanny.html

https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artist-info.6477.html

http://raleigh.aiga.org/you-should-know-fanny-palmer/

http://www.marybethwest.com/womens-history-month-frances-flora-bond-palmer/