Samuel John Carter (March 1835 – 1 May 1892) was a British artist and illustrator, known for his paintings and drawings of animals. He was the father of the archaeologist Howard Carter. MordauntBissetBySamuelJohnCarter

Life

Carter was born in March 1835 at

Swaffham Swaffham () is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland District and English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of and in the 2001 census had a population of 6,9 ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, the son of Samuel Isaac Carter, a gamekeeper. As a child Carter took lessons from

John Sell Cotman John Sell Cotman (16 May 1782 – 24 July 1842) was an English marine and landscape painter, etcher, illustrator, author and a leading member of the Norwich School of painters. Born in Norwich, the son of a silk merchant and lace dealer, Co ...

who ran a school of drawing in Swaffham. Basing himself in London and Swaffham, Carter established himself as an animal painter, including wildlife and hunting scenes, and was the principal animal illustrator for the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

'' from 1867 to 1889. He also worked as an animal portrait painter in his Norfolk locale, including obtaining commissions to paint clients' horses and dogs. Exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy, he drew positive comment from

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

. In 1858, at the age of 22, Carter married Martha Joyce (c. 1836–1920) at Swaffham. They had 11 children: ten sons and a daughter, with three sons dying in infancy. Most of the surviving children inherited their father's artistic talent with three, William, Verney and Amy, exhibiting at the Royal Academy. The youngest, Howard, became an archaeologist after gaining a reputation for his precise copying of Egyptian tomb decorations, he later discovering the

tomb of Tutankhamun The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC), a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers ...

. Having suffering at least one stroke, Carter died on 1 May 1892 aged 57.

Work

Howard Carter later said of his father "being an animal painter of no little fame ... he was one of the most powerful draughtmen I ever knew. His knowledge of comparative anatomy and memory of form was matchless. He could depict from memory, accurately, any animal in any action, foreshortened or otherwise, with the greatest ease". Record price for a painting by Samuel Carter at auction is $9,465 USD for ''''The King of the Castle'''', sold at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

Olympia in 2005.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Samuel John 1835 births 1892 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters English illustrators 19th-century English male artists