Samuel Hieronymus Grimm

Infobox Person
name = Samuel Hieronymus Grimm


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birth_date = 1733
birth_place = Burgdorf, Switzerland
death_date = 14 April 1794"The Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, p399]
death_place = London
education = under Johann Ludwig Aberli in Berne
occupation = Artist
spouse =
parents =
children =

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-94) was an 18th century Swiss artist who specialized in watercolour and pen and ink media. He studied under Johann Ludwig Aberli [http://www.answers.com/topic/samuel-hieronymous-grimm-1 Samuel Grimm at Answers.com] accessed 21 September 2007] in Berne in his home country before travelling in France until 1768 when he moved to England. Critics of his time remarked that Grimm was a "man of genious". [Henry Watson Kent, "Bibliographical Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature", 227 pages, The Grolier Club, Original from Harvard University (1903)] He was adopted as a travelling companion of the Rev. Sir Richard Kaye who became Rector of Kirkby in Ashfield in 1765 - his role was to record "anything curious". [ [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm British Library collection of Grimm's sketchs] accessed 21 September 2007] . Kaye held the largely ceremonial role as of Durham Cathedral in the 1770s which was said to be "a period of complacent materialism". [ [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=005ADD000015538U00150000 notes on Grimm sketch of Durham cathedral] accessed 21 September 2003]

Early years

Grimm spent much of his early life producing etchings, pen and ink and watercolours in England, but before he arrived he had already supplied the illustrations for Friedrich von Hagedorn's Poetische Werke which was published between 1769 and 1772. In 1775 he was known to be in Derbyshire and Staffordshire. By 1778 he was working in London. [Henry Watson Kent, "Bibliographical Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature", 227 pages, The Grolier Club, Original from Harvard University (1903)]

Role as recording historian

Grimm achieved a niche of recording events of history that might otherwise have gone unreported in the detail he preserved them. For example, the British Library credits him with producing the only surviving scene of the coronation of Edward VI. [ Peter Clark, D. M. Palliser, Martin Daunton, "The Cambridge Urban History of Britain", (2000) Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521431417] Another example of a unique artistic recording of a perished Gloucestershire architectural monument is the 1790 ink wash drawing Grimm produced at the Calcot Manor chapel, which is long since ruined [ [http://www.luminatechnologies.org/luminaaw2.html C. Michael Hogan & Amy Gregory, "History and Architecture of Calcot Manor", Lumina Technologies., prepared for Calcot Manor, July 5, 2006] ] and a he recorded Samuel Pegge's church which was later rebuilt after a fire.

The British Library possesses 2,662 drawings in twelve volumes by this artist, covering many of the counties of England [ [http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/Museums/Exhibitions/ChantryChapel650Years/c_image.htm Wakefield.gov.uk art gallery] accessed 21 September 2007] and a further 886 watercolours, in seven volumes, dedicated to the county of Sussex. [http://www.bl.uk/collections/eblj/2003/pdfarticles/article2.pdf ‘Everything Curious’:Samuel Hieronymus Grimm and Sir Richard Kaye] by Brett Dolman. Accessed September 2007] Samuel died in Tavistock Street in London and left his money to a niece in Switzerland. He was buried at St Paul's church in Covent Garden in a service taken by his erstwhile benefactor, the Dean of Lincoln, the Rev. Sir Richard Kaye.

Patronage

Grimm's leading patron was Sir Richard Kaye, but this was not his only income. He also undertook work for the naturalist Gilbert White and William Burrell. William Burrell gave Grimm's Sussex collection in 1796 whilst Sir Richard bequeathed his collection of Grimm's art to the British Museum in 1810. Luckily they valued his work more than Samuel who had left instructions for his papers to be destroyed after his death.

References

External links

* [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/galleries/grimm/ A virtual Grimm sketchbook ]

Further reading

* Grimm, Samuel. Clay, Rotha Mary: London, Faber, 1941.
* [http://www.bl.uk/collections/eblj/2003/pdfarticles/article2.pdf ‘Everything Curious’:Samuel Hieronymus Grimm and Sir Richard Kaye] by Brett Dolman. Accessed September 2007