Samuel Calvert, a painter, wood-engraver and book illustrator, was the third and youngest son of the celebrated English engraver Edward Calvert, q.v. He was the brother of William Calvert (q.v), with whom he published Calvert's Illustrated Almanac for Victoria for the years 1855 through to 1859. The Monthly Almanac and Illustrated Commentator (Adelaide, January-July 1850) is attributed to Calvert and W. M. Akhurst (q.v.).
Calvert grew up in an artistic family, and along with his brothers was taught painting, designing, etching and engraving by his father. His older brothers, John and William, migrated to South Australia in 1843 and Calvert himself sailed for Adelaide aboard the Symmetry in 1848. He began work at George Dehane's printery in King William Street and by February 1850 was providing illustrations for the short-lived Monthly Almanac and Illustrated Commentator, of which he was co-proprietor. By July 1850 Calvert had set up an Artists' Repository in King William Street. In 1851 he was in partnership with the printer Alfred Waddy, q.v. As well as illustrative work for the Almanac, Calvert produced wood engravings for billheads and advertisements, and lithographed views such as The Old Spot, Gawler Town and Railway Hotel Port Adelaide. The Art Gallery of South Australia holds some of his work, including watercolour paintings on which lithographs were based.
On 24 January 1852 Calvert left for Melbourne on the Asia. There he again worked as a wood-engraver, providing illustrations for books and advertisements and for the illustrated monthly magazine the Armchair (1853-1854). His first recorded work in Melbourne is a frontispiece, Diggers, and a map, Routes to the Victoria Diggings, for James Bonwick's (q.v.) Notes of a Gold Digger and Gold Diggers' Guide (Melbourne 1852). In 1854 Calvert was in partnership with his older brother, William. As engravers, lithographers and draughtsmen, they produced the short-lived illustrated periodicals Victoria Illustrated (a broadsheet) and Australian Home Companion and Illustrated Weekly Magazine. The firm also printed the illustrated periodicals Australian Builder and Weekly Remembrancer and local almanacs, until 1857 when the partnership seems to have been dissolved.
For some years Calvert continued as a wood-engraver, working either from home or as an employee of a printing firm, possibly his brother's. In 1867 he again set up commercially as a wood-engraver, at 87 Little Collins Street East, close to William's printery in the same street. He remained there until 1886, then moved to Little Collins Street East with his son, William Samuel Calvert (q.v.), who carried on the business as an engraver while Samuel listed himself as an artist.
Calvert seems to have retired to England in 1888 but returned to Melbourne in around 1893, when he opened the Burlington Gallery at 90-92 Collins Street in November 1894. It was destroyed by fire the following May but rapidly rebuilt. He remained at this address as a working artist until 1898 then moved to Bank Place. In 1904 or 1905 he again returned to England, where he remained until his death.
Calvert took every opportunity to exhibit examples of his engraved work, and also showed oil paintings and watercolours, including many Australian scenes. At the 1879 Sydney International Exhibition he showed eight theatrical designs for a burlesque of Alfred the Great (written by Marcus Clarke, q.v.).
Calvert was a prolific worker and engraved illustrations for nearly all the Melbourne illustrated papers and periodicals from 1855 to the 1880s as well as for publications in other colonies. Examples can be found in Melbourne Punch, the Illustrated Journal of Australasia, Illustrated Newsletter of Australasia, Illustrated Melbourne Post, Australasian Sketcher, Illustrated Australian News and Illustrated New Zealand Herald.
Calvert was elected to membership of the Victorian Academy of Arts on 1 November 1871 and to its council on 11 April 1872, serving until 1887 and continuing his membership until the Victorian Artists' Society was formed. He was survived by his son, William Samuel of Melbourne, and his two daughters, Miss E. F. Calvert (a painter whose work Madonna was lent by her father to the 1869 Melbourne Public Library Exhibition) and Mrs F. J. Epsom of London. His wife Emma née Lake predeceased him.
Source: The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online, http://www.daao.org.au, accessed 18/02/2009.
