Kenilworth Castle
Frances Flora Bond Palmer American, born England
Lithographed and published by Currier & Ives American
Not on view
In this scene in Warwickshire, England, castle ruins are framed by trees, with and cows and sheep in the foreground. Kenilworth Castle was a semi-royal palace established in the Norman period and developed through the Tudor era. It became an operational center for the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses and withstood a six month seige in 1266. Edward II was removed from the throne there, and the Earl of Leicester used the castle to create a lavish reception for Elizabeth I in 1575.
When Frances "Fanny" Flora Bond Palmer moved to New York from England in 1844 she was thirty-two and an accomplished artist and printmaker. Initially, Fanny and her husband Seymour operated a small print-shop in lower Manhattan, similar to one they had run in Leicester (United Kingdom). In 1849, the couple moved to Brooklyn after the business closed. Nathaniel Currier recognized Palmer’s talent and began to buy her drawings to use as print designs. After Currier & Ives was established in 1857 she became a staff artist. As a designer able to transfer images to lithographic stones for printing, Palmer produced more than 200 prints for the firm and today is regarded as a leading woman lithographer of the period.
