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Close-up of Sam's initials and date from bottom right of the painting.
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The main picture shows Interior of Knole Castle, Kent, dated 1858, and this painting is also signed and titled on the original label on the reverse side. The picture appeared on the Collins Antiques auction web site in 2002. Top right: Samuel Rayner in his carte de visite of 1865 (age 59).Samuel Rayner was born at Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire (where some of the Rayner family live even today) on the 15th April 1806. Known as Sam, he was the third of five children in a large and patriarchal family of Cornchandlers and Farmers of the Baptist faith. Circa 1812, his parents (Samuel, born circa 1781, and Margaret (nee Wiggins)) moved to London and ran an ironmongery business at 7 Blandford Street, Portman Square, Marylebone.Samuel's father died at the age of 36 in late May, 1817, and was buried at Colnbrook Baptist Chapel. Samuel was eleven at this time, and it appears that his wealthy grandfather Thomas (who died the next year) may have encouraged him to paint. Thomas is thought to be the artist Thomas Rayner, who flourished in the 1770s, and he clearly saw genuine potential in his grandson, for Samuel developed sufficiently as a watercolour artist for his painting of Malmsbury Abbey to be accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1821, when he was 15 years old. At that time his address was still 7 Blandford Street. (His mother remained there for the rest of her life and may have continued to run the business with the help of her other children until her death, when she, too, was buried at Colnbrook). Samuel exhibited a second painting of Malmsbury Abbey (West Front) at the Royal Academy in 1822, and at some point around this time, Samuel took training in Architectural draughtsmanship with John Britton. Over the next few years he travelled on sketching expeditions with other artists, taking details of buildings and monuments.  One of his early landscapes (location and title unknown).He specialised in topographical subjects in sepia wash, and architectural and historical subjects in watercolour. His titles exhibited at the Royal Academy were mostly English cathedrals and abbeys, and indeed the majority of his paintings were of church abbeys, ruins, castles and old mansions, but often interior rather than exterior views.It was commonly noted (see below) that his style closely resembled that of George Cattermole - which wasn't surprising, since George Cattermole and George's brother Richard were involved in producing drawings for John Britton's Cathedral Antiquities of England, and Samuel had five of his own drawings engraved for inclusion, so the three could well have worked together at a time when Samuel's own style was still evolving. Given that George and Samuel became great friends, this is probably when that friendship was formed. [John Britton was an antiquary of considerable note, involved in many substantial literary projects which cost lavish sums of money to produce, but while Cathedral Antiquities ran to 14 high-quality volumes (between 1814-1835), it was definitely not a financial success.] Visiting (and showing paintings in) the London art galleries was probably the way Samuel met Ann Manser, the daughter of William Manser (a successful London publisher) and a promising artist herself. Although they enjoyed each other's company, Ann's father seems to have been far less pleased with their mutual regard, and it is thought that they eloped to get married (on 2 October 1823, according to family records) before he could prevent it. Afterwards, they returned home to take up residence at 11 Blandford Street, just a few doors from Samuel's mother's business. Their first son, William, was born in 1824 but died young (perhaps in childbirth). When their first daughter, Nancy, followed in 1826, she was always referred to as the eldest. Two of his paintings from that period were Salisbury Cathedral and Wells Cathedral, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1824 and 1826 respectively. They both continued to paint and at this point Samuel's mythical initial 'A.' came into being. Samuel and Ann both exhibited work at the Royal Academy in 1827, and the R.A.'s records show two paintings of the Interior of Westminster Abbey by S.A. Rayner. This almost certainly should have read 'S. and A. Rayner' - but Samuel's name has been wrongly rendered ever since. The years 1827 and 1828 were eventful. At the age of 21 Samuel inherited his share of his Grandfather's estate, and also received a "VERY handsome order" from the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. This prompted the family to move to Derbyshire where they lived in what was then a fairly new terrace at Museum Parade (now South Parade) in Matlock Bath (close to the administrative county town). Even so, they envisaged the need to keep a foot in London, and retained their house at 11 Blandford Street. Shortly after the move, Nancy gained her first sister, Rhoda (known as Rose), born in 1828.
In Museum Parade, Samuel set up a lithographic printing and publishing business in partnership with John Vallence, but he continued painting and had a large painting of Rouen Cathedral hung at the R.A. in 1828 (after a possible visit in 1827). When not working for the Duke, Samuel was busy sketching views of the locality in order to complete his first book Rayners Sketches of Derbyshire Scenery Part 1, containing 6 plates lithographed by his friend J. D. Harding of Portman Square (a leading artist & lithographer) Published by S. Rayner, Museum Parade, 1st August 1830. And, being conveniently close to Haddon Hall, he painted it on several occasions and encouraged his artistic offspring to do the same. (You'll find a separate page on their joint endeavours here.) In 1833 the whole family moved back to London to live at No 6 Dufour Place, Broad Street, St James, Piccadilly, where their fourth daughter Frances was born in 1834. Why they moved back isn't quite clear, nor why they didn't return to Blandford Street. However, the original address might have been held on a lease that couldn't be broken, or even disposed of by then. But a possible reason for return might have been that Samuel's mother's health had declined, for she died a short while later, on 15th March 1834 at the age of 50. Samuel's lithographic printing interests, and Ann's talent at engraving on Black Marble may have then prompted the return to Derbyshire - this time to 17 Friar Gate, Derby in 1836. Derbyshire spar and local and imported marbles were available there (as they had been at Matlock Bath) from the quarries, and Samuel and Robert Moseley formed a partnership in a lithographic printing and publishing business at 17 Friar Gate and at The Corn Market in Derby.  This church
interior depicts The Baron's Chapel at Haddon Hall, a favourite Rayner subject with
versions by Samuel, Margaret, Louise and Frances. The chapel appears in Samuel's 1836 illustrated book about Haddon, and is the
subject of one of his last paintings exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Autumn Exhibition 1875.
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His studies were cleverly handled and agreeable in colour, but obviously based on the manner of George Cattermole, whose works they sometimes resemble so closely that they may easily be mistaken for his. Rayner was not, however, a
direct pupil of that artist. He also did some work for the engravers. In Britton’s Cathedral Antiquities, there
are two plates after his drawings in the illustrations of Wells (1824), and in the Exeter (1826) three
more, besides one drawn by Cotman after a sketch by S. Rayner. In S.C. Hall’s Baronial Halls &c. Of England,
vol. 1, is one lithotint (of ‘Retainer’s Gallery, Knole’) after S. Rayner. [from vol. 2, p299] In 1846 Samuel's uncle, Joseph Rayner, died and included this in his will: "I give and bequeath to the children of my late brother Samuel Rayner two hundred pounds stock in the new three and a half per cent to be equally  divided
between them."
Assuming his four siblings were still alive, nephew Samuel would have received £40 of this. At this stage, we don't
know much about his finances, though there is a suggestion in a letter that Ann wrote in 1848 that they could have been
struggling somewhat - in which case Samuel's share (given its value in those days) would have been very welcome.
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As Roget again reports: At a meeting of the Society held on the 10th of February, 1851, for the
election of candidates, after the ‘attention of the Society’ had been ‘called to his case,’ it was unanimously
resolved ‘that Mr. Rayner’s name be erased from the list of Associates.’ The date of Rayner’s birth has not been ascertained, but he cannot have been a very young man at the time of his election. Probably he is the same artist to whom, under the name ‘Samuel A. Rayner,’ Graves attributes twenty works at the Royal Academy, four at the British Institution, and nineteen at Suffolk Street [London] between 1821 and 1872. There was a drawing by S. Rayner at the Dudley Gallery in 1865 and another in 1871. No less than five daughters of the ex- Associate followed his profession, and one joined our society. [vol. 2, p300]  Kingston
Church, signed with his monogram and dated '64.
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| Harry Drummond, September 2006. |
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Artist & Spectator in Ruin was auctioned by Bruck (North Carolina) in autumn 2006. The painting has Samuel's SR monogram deep in the grass along the bottom edge, with the date July 1876. One of Samuel's beloved tombs lies among the bushes to the right, but the central focus is, of course, the two figures. Although they are not identified, it would be easy to suppose they might be Samuel looking over the shoulder of his son Richard as the latter worked on his own creation. The location is unknown.
Sam Rayner's death came at the end of the 1870s. For some reason, the date wasn't widely known and Benizet (the French guide to art and artists) is among those reporting that he died in 1874 at Brighton ("so it is believed") - a date dutifully picked up by most other sources. In fact, he died at the family home in Windsor in 1879. (This will be a reassurance to those with paintings dated 1875 and 1876, and possibly even later!)
SAMUEL RAYNER (1812-1874) THE ABBOT'S VISIT Signed with initials and dated 1874, watercolour and bodycolour on
pulped paper 49.5 x 62.5cm. Characteristic rich colours, good. Auctioned by