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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) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturat ...
and watercolors.


Life and work

Howitt was a member of an old
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
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 Londo ...
, 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 Lond ...
,
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, 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 refers to activities that mandate sufficiently large open spaces ...
. 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, he was for a time a drawing master at Samuel Goodenough's school in
Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...
. 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 in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
, 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 Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. Howitt was closely associated in his art with
Thomas Rowlandson Thomas Rowlandson (; 13 July 1757 – 21 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 soc ...
, 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 ( ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE; formerly rendered as Æsop) was a Greeks, Greek wikt:fabulist, fabulist and Oral storytelling, storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence re ...
(and Phaedrus) from the prose collection of
Samuel Croxall Samuel Croxall (c. 1688/9 – 1752) was an Anglican churchman, writer and translator, particularly noted for his edition of Aesop's Fables. Early career Samuel Croxall was born in 1688 or 1689 at Walton on Thames, where his father (also called Sa ...
, 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 Peach ...
'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. 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 w ...
”, “ The Cock, the Dog and the Fox”, “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 English animal artists British painters of animals 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters English watercolourists English landscape artists People from Nottinghamshire 1750s births 1822 deaths People from Chigwell 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists