Samuel Prout (1783-1852).

Sketches at Home and Abroad. Hints on the Acquirement of Freedom of Execution and Breadth of Effect in Landscape Painting. To which are added, Simple Instructions, on the proper uses and application of Colour.

London, Marco A. Nattali, printed by Hullmandel & Walton, London. 1844.

Very large 4° (38 x 28 cm). 16 pp, 48 ll. With a lithographed additional title (with chine collé lithographed vignette on India paper); 48 lithographed plates printed chine collé on India paper; lithographed plate list at end with chine collé lithographed vignette. Also with two additional original drawings tipped on front free endpaper: one by Samuel Prout in crayon of Weymouth in Dorset, England and one by his son Samuel Gillespie Prout in pencil and blue watercolour of Herstmonceaux Castle in Sussex.

Dark green half morocco with marbled sides, spine gilt in six compartments with raised bands and gilt title, gilt edges, marbled endpapers.

Samuel Prout’s own copy, presented to him by the publisher Marco Nattali: “To Saml. Prout Esq, from his obliged friend, M.A. Nattali”. Subsequently owned by Prout’s son, the artist Samuel Gillespie Prout (1822-1911). Both father and son added an original drawing to this book.
This is a “deluxe” issue of a rare plate book. The present copy has the lithographs printed in chine collé technique on “India Paper” instead of wove paper.
Samuel Prout was one of the foremost British Romantic watercolour painters of the first half of the 19th century. Prout secured the position of Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV in 1829 and afterwards to Queen Victoria. John Ruskin, whose work often emulated Prout's, wrote in 1844, ”Sometimes I tire of Turner, but never of Prout”. Besides numerous watercolours, Prout produced a couple plate books, often in collaboration with the publisher Nattali. These titles, now all very rare, include The architectural Antiquities of Great Britain (1835), The hand-book for travellers in Italy (1838) Domestic architecture : a series of views of cottages and farmhouses, in England and Wales (ca. 1844), Hints on light & shadow (1848). Nattali had also worked with Turner.
The book is meant as an artists’ manual, but the size and luxurious materials used for this book signify that it was aimed at the wealthy individual rather than the common artist. Of the subjects, ten are from England and Scotland, seventeen from France, five from Italy, two from The Netherlands, and fourteen from Germany. In the 16 pp. introduction the author describes them as designs to exemplify breadth of effect and composition. Around the same time an undated edition with the same title appeared at London: J. Rimell & Son, with 26 plates depicting only scenes in England.

Samuel Gillespie Prout left this copy “with love” to his housekeeper, Clara Alberta Allen.

Reference: Lowndes IV, p.1983 (no mention of the present deluxe issue). For Prout see: Richard Lockett, Samuel Prout, 1783-1852, London: V&A, 1985, p. 175 (Checklist of publications by Samuel Prout): “publ. by A.M. Nattali (an enlarged ed. of 1834 Interiors) and printed by Hullmandel & Walton”.

Condition: Inscription on front pastedown and first free endpaper. Foxing throughout, some plates not affected. Stain in the foot of a couple pages. Covers slightly rubbed.

Provenance: Samuel Prout (1844-1852); Samuel Gillespie Prout (1852-1911); the estate of Clara Alberta Allen (1911-2016).