Samuel Palmer, 1805–1881: Vision and Landscape is much more than a handsome catalogue for a splendid exhibition of the same name. It is a significant contribution to the steadily growing literature about the artist. Essays by eight different scholars place Palmer within his historical context, while detailed entries about each of the 164 exhibited works—these pictures and more, all excellently reproduced in color—give the catalogue a refreshingly visual focus. That so many authors have been asked to contribute to the publication speaks to several important characteristics of the artist’s career. Contrary to the familiar image of Palmer as a follower of William Blake and a near-recluse who lived and worked away from London, he was intimately involved in the art world of his time. He also worked in at least two very different artistic styles, a variety of mediums, and his career spanned two, if not three, artistic generations at a time of immense creativity in British landscape painting. The catalogue covers all these aspects of Palmer’s career. William Vaughan, who has published extensively on nineteenth-century British and German art, wrote a large part of the catalogue as well as selected and organized the exhibition. His introduction offers both a...