Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Samuel, George
SAMUEL, GEORGE (d. 1823?), landscape-painter, practised both in oils and watercolours, and was one of the most esteemed topographical draughtsmen of his day. He exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1786 to 1823, and also largely at the British Institution, his works being pleasing transcripts of the scenery of Cornwall, Westmoreland, and other picturesque parts of England. In 1789 Samuel painted a view of the Thames from Rotherhithe during the great frost, which attracted much attention; his view of Holland House was engraved in Angus's ‘Select Views of Seats,’ that of Windsor Castle in Pyne's ‘Royal Residences,’ and many others in the ‘Copperplate Magazine’ (1792) and Walker's ‘Itinerant’ (1799). He also made in 1799 the designs for the illustrations to ‘Grove Hill,’ a poem describing the seat of Dr. Lettsom by Thomas Maurice [q. v.] Samuel was a member of Girtin's sketching society in 1799, and one of the earliest workers in lithography. His death, which occurred in or soon after 1823, was caused by an old wall falling on him while he was sketching.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Roget's Hist. of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Society; exhibition catalogues.]