Peter George Patmore was an English periodical writer active between the years of 1820 and 1825, known mainly for a series of articles in the New Monthly Magazine entitled "Picture Galleries of England", acting as a critical guide to the main aristocratic collections of Old Master paintings at the time. These articles were a response to, and in some ways a dialogue with, a similar series begun by the great critic William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...

 at around the same time, and published in the London Magazine

London Magazine

The London Magazine is a historied publication of arts, literature and miscellaneous interests. Its history ranges nearly three centuries and several reincarnations, publishing the likes of William Wordsworth, William S...

. Patmore's works were serialised and published in a single volume in 1824, of which a copy is available in the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

. He was forced into publication by the announcement of several other works of the same name attempting to capitalise on his (or possibly Hazlitt's) success.

Patmore was Assistant Secretary of the Surrey Institution

Surrey Institution

The Surrey Institution was an organisation devoted to scientific education and research, based in London. It was founded by private subscription in 1807, taking the Royal Institution - founded in 1799 - as a model...

, where Hazlitt lectured in 1818, after which the two became personal friends. Patmore was thereby enabled to record many details about Hazlitt later drawn upon by the latter's biographers.

He was also the father of the minor Victorian poet Coventry Patmore

Coventry Patmore

Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and critic best known for The Angel in the House, his narrative poem about an ideal happy marriage.-Youth:...

.

Sources

• Grayling, A.C. The Quarrel of the Age: The Life and Times of William Hazlitt. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2000.