Samuel John Carter
{{Short description|Artist and father of archaeologist Howard Carter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
File:Samuel John Carter NPG Ax14921.jpg
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.
File:MordauntBissetBySamuelJohnCarter.jpg (1825–1884), by Samuel John Carter]]
Life
Carter was born in March 1835 at Swaffham, Norfolk, the son of Samuel Isaac Carter, a gamekeeper. As a child Carter took lessons from John Sell Cotman who ran a school of drawing in Swaffham.{{cite book|author=H. V. F. Winstone|author-link=H. V. F. Winstone|title=Howard Carter and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (Rev edn) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/828501310|date=2006|publisher=Barzan, Manchester.|isbn=1-905521-04-9|pages=4–6|oclc=828501310}}
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 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.{{cite book|author=T. G. H. James|title=Howard Carter: The Path to Tutankhamun|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AyK0_weGa20C&pg=PA6|access-date=21 March 2013|date=15 January 2012|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|isbn=978-1-84511-258-5|pages=6–7}}
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.{{cite ODNB|id=32312|title=Carter, Howard|first=T. G. H.|last=James}}
Having suffering at least one stroke, Carter died on 1 May 1892 aged 57.{{cite book|author=H. V. F. Winstone|author-link=H. V. F. Winstone|title=Howard Carter and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (Rev edn) |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/828501310|date=2006|publisher=Barzan, Manchester.|isbn=1-905521-04-9|page=37|oclc=828501310}}
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
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Samuel John Carter}}
- {{cite news|title=Photographic portrait: Samuel John Carter by Charles B. Praetorius, National Portrait Gallery |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp82159/samuel-john-carter|access-date=8 August 2020}}
- {{Art UK bio}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Samuel John}}
Category:19th-century English painters
Category:English male painters