George Richmond made this beautiful red chalk portrait when his great friend Samuel Palmer was living in Shoreham. His long hair, moustache and beard, which he grew during the later 1820s, recalls George Richmond's miniature of Palmer, now owned by the National Portrait Gallery and dated 1829. This drawing also may also relate to Richmond's portrayal of Christ in his tempera Christ and the Woman of Samaria and the preliminary drawing for that subject made in 1828 (London, Tate Gallery). It certainly echoes traditional representations of Christ, for example, Albrecht Durer's Self-portrait as Christ (Munich, Alte Pinakothek).