Gustaf Wilhelm Palm was a visual artist and art professor born 1810 in Kristianstad. He was educated first studying for the university rhythm master A. Arfwidsson in Lund, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm under Carl Johan Fahlcranz where he developed his painting style into a romantic Nordic wilderness art. His closest classmate was Per Wickenberg, with whom he shared a room in poor conditions.
     In 1837 he left for Rome. On the way he stayed in Copenhagen, where he met the Danish master C.W. Eckersberg and the Norwegian landscape painter Johan Christian Dahl, who was visiting Copenhagen just then. The meeting with Dahl in particular was of great importance to Palm. He traveled on to Berlin and from there to Vienna, where he remained for two years. At this time, the influence of Dahl came through in his art.

     In 1840 he traveled on to Italy and spent the winter of 1840–1841 in Venice, where he executed a large number of sketchbook drawings. In July 1841 he arrived in Rome, where he stayed for the following 11 years and became one of the main figures in the Swedish artist colony. A rich artistic life was flourishing at the time with both German and Scandinavian artists' colonies. There he met the Swedish artist Egron Lundgren with whom he would maintain a lifelong friendship.

     Palm’s landscape style was associated with the German classic romanticism, similar to the great German artist Casper David Fredrich. This type of romanticist landscape allowed for artists to patch together harmonious landscapes from different scenes from different areas. In executing this type of art, Palm was both praised as a master of landscape composition, but also savagely criticized by advocates of naturalism for depicting landscapes that did not exist wholly in reality. In 1847 he received a commission from King Oscar I to create and view of the city of Genazzano.

     However, it was not his studio works, but the many plein air studies in oil paint executed with fresh colors, clear transparent air, and light brushwork that he is known for today. Egrom Lundgren exclaimed later they represented, "plein air painting, before plein air painting."
     In 1851 Palm made a trip to Sicily and Spain, and he stayed in Paris before returning to Stockholm in 1852. That same year he became a member of the Academy of Free Artists (De Frie Kunstneres Akademi), in 1859 he became a teacher at the academy's drawing school, and in 1880 he was given the title of professor.

     He maintained the artistic ideals of his youth and in time came to oppose the younger artists, who gave him the nickname "Palma Vecchio" (Old Palma, e.g. the nickname of an Italian Renaissance painter) as a representative of a bygone era. He was appointed a member of the Academy and became a well-known Stockholm profile in his sling coat. He often signed his paintings with a G. W. with a palm tree in-between.
     Palm’s daughter Anna Sofia Palm de Rosa (1859–1924) was also a successful artist. She studied with her father and in Denmark, Holland and Paris. She mainly painted watercolors of scenes around Stockholm harbor. Many were small, and intricately detailed showing great care to represent the architecture of the city.
     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• National Museum in Stockholm

• National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

• The Metropolitan Museum

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art

• The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge

• Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark)

• Gothenburg Art Museum

• Malmö Museum

• Norrköping Museum

• Lund Museum

• Uppsala Art Museum

• Uppsala University Collection

• Sörmlands Art Museum

• Helsingborgs Museum

• Nordic Museum and Stockholm Castle

• National Maritime Museum