Samuel Howitt (1756/57–1822) was an English painter, illustrator and
etcher
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
of animals, hunting, horse-racing and landscape scenes. He worked in both
oils
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and
watercolors
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
.
Life and work
Howitt was a member of an old
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family. In early life he lived at
Chigwell
Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the London U ...
, near
Epping Forest
Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, was financially independent and devoted himself to
field sports
Field sports are outdoor sports that take place in the wilderness or sparsely populated rural areas, where there are vast areas of uninhabited greenfields. The term specifically refer to activities that mandate sufficiently large open spaces and ...
. However he ran into financial difficulties and was obliged to turn to art as a profession - which up until then he had engaged in as a talented amateur.
Coming to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, he was for a time a drawing master at
Samuel Goodenough
Samuel Goodenough ( – 12 August 1827) was the Bishop of Carlisle from 1808 until his death in 1827, and an amateur botanist and collector. He is honoured in the scientific names of the plant genus ''Goodenia'' and the red-capped robin (''Petro ...
's school in
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
. In 1783, he exhibited 3 coloured drawings of hunting subjects with the
Incorporated Society of Artists
The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established P ...
. From time to time he continued to exhibit there and at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, beginning in 1784 with a hunting piece, followed in 1785 by two landscapes - "A view of the ruins of an abbey" and "Fairlop Oak". In 1793 he showed "Jaques and the Deer" and "A Fox Hunt"; in 1794, "Smugglers alarmed"; in 1800, two pictures titled "Deer"; in 1814 "Dead game"; and in 1815, "Bella, horrida Bella". He probably exhibited so little because he was in such demand as a commercial illustrator.
Howitt worked both in oils and water-colours, for the most part confining himself to sporting subjects and illustrations of natural history, which were carefully executed, spirited and truthful. These, as Howitt represented in his ''New Work of Animals'', were “drawn from the life" and published so as to "assist the pencil of the designer who has not had an opportunity to pay the same attention to this branch of the art”. However, notes in one sketchbook containing watercolours of apes and monkeys indicate that, while some there certainly were viewed in private menageries, others were studies of stuffed specimens from
William Bullock’s museum and the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
Howitt was closely associated in his art with
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson (; 13 July 175721 April 1827) was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual social an ...
, whose sister he married, and his works did, at one time, often pass for those of his brother-in-law; but, unlike Rowlandson, he was a practical sportsman, and his scenes were more accurately composed. He was a clever and industrious etcher, and published a great number of plates similar in character to his drawings, and delicately executed with a fine needle. He also produced a number of caricatures in the manner of Rowlandson.
Howitt was particularly noted for the illustrations in (Captain) Thomas Williamson's ''Oriental Field Sports'' (1807), based on sketches made by the author in India . He also illustrated several other works: ''Thoughts on Hunting'' (London: D. Bremner, 1798), Other publications included ''Miscellaneous Etchings of Animals'' (50 plates, 1803); ''British Field Sports'' (20 coloured plates, 1807); ''The Angler's Manual'' (12 plates, 1808); ''A New Work of Animals'' (100 plates, 1811); ''Groups of Animals'' (24 plates, 1811); ''The British Sportsman'' (70 plates, 1812); ''Foreign Field Sports'' (110 plates, 1819).
In 1822 Howitt died in
Somers Town, London, and was buried in
St. Pancras cemetery.
A new work of animals
Some idea of Howitt’s ingenuity and commercial resourcefulness can be gained from considering his compilation of ''A New Work of Animals'', a series of copper engravings in quarto format “principally designed from the fables of Aesop, Gay and Phaedrus”. The idea of an album of animal portraits is presented in a prefatory note as a new venture that “strange as it may appear, has never before been done by any British artist”. Howitt “has preferred representing most of the animals in fables, as allowing more scope for delineating the expression, the character and the passions,” and he hopes that, by being "studious to attain correctness, he may deserve the approbation of the natural historian" and instruct fellow painters. This will explain why, out of a hundred plates, only 56 illustrate fables, the rest being of animal or hunting subjects.
For the text of the fables, Howitt had extracted those of
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
(and Phaedrus) from the prose collection of
Samuel Croxall
Samuel Croxall (c. 1690 – 1752) was an Anglican churchman, writer and translator, particularly noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables.
Early career
Samuel Croxall was born in Walton on Thames, where his father (also called Samuel) was vicar. ...
, including his lengthy moralising "applications".
John Gay
John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peac ...
's fables are in rhyme and only account for 27 pages out of 106 of text. Separate plates were bound in sideways opposite the title, followed by one of the supplementary illustrations. However, beneath the title of each plate there is an inscription indicating that some of these were designed in the years 1809-10, antedating the publication of the book itself in 1811 and suggesting that they were sold separately at that date, and probably afterwards too. Since fables carried a moral, they had wider popular appeal than elitist sporting subjects and could be mounted on walls for the edification of whoever saw them. Such plates were available in both black and white and in tinted versions. In addition, Howitt also created watercolours from the designs that were sold with the moral printed round the card mount. In this way, from a single work the artist was able to extract three sources of income.
A second edition of the whole book was published in 1818.
World Cat
/ref> Howitt's plates were also to be republished after his death. Further evidence of the esteem in which his work continued to be held was the use made of six illustrations as the basis of the Mintons
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...
, Hollins set of Aesop's Fables tiles, first issued in 1870, sixty years later. These included “The Tortoise and the Hare
"The Tortoise and the Hare" is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index. The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself is a variant of a common folktale theme in wh ...
”, “The Cock, the Dog and the Fox
The Cock, the Dog and the Fox is one of Aesop's Fables and appears as number 252 in the Perry Index. Although it has similarities with other fables where a predator flatters a bird, such as The Fox and the Crow and Chanticleer and the Fox, in th ...
”, “The Sick Stag”, “The Boar and the Fox”, “ The Bear and the Travellers” and “ The Bear and the Bees”.
References
Bibliography (selected)
Illustrated by Howitt:
* ''Oriental Field Sports'': Being a Complete, Detailed, and Accurate Description of the Wild Sports of the East; and Exhibiting, in a Novel and Interesting Manner, the Natural History of the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, the Tiger, the Leopard, the Bear, the Deer, the Buffalo, the Wolf, the Wild Hog, the Jackall, the Wild Dog, the Civet, and Other Undomesticated Animals: As Likewise the Different Species of Feathered Game, Fishes, and Serpents, London 1807
Volume 1
*
Groups of Animals, Containing Forty-four Plates, Drawn from the Life and Etched
', London 1811
''A New Work of Animals''
London 1811; a better and more complete copy is accessible in th
Online Archive
''Foreign Field Sports, Fisheries, Sporting Anecdotes,&c''
London 1819
External links
(Heatons of Tisbury)
(ArtCyclopedia)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howitt, Samuel
Animal artists
18th-century English painters
English male painters
19th-century English painters
English watercolourists
Landscape artists
People from Nottinghamshire
1756 births
1822 deaths
People from Chigwell
19th-century English male artists
18th-century English male artists