Samuel Owen (1769? – 8 December 1857) was an English

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

painter and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

Life and works

Owen was born about 1769. Nothing is recorded of him before 1791, when he exhibited "A Sea View" 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 ...

. This was followed in 1797, after the victory of

Cape St. Vincent Cape St. Vincent ( pt, Cabo de São Vicente, ) is a headland in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the Algarve, southern Portugal. It is the southwesternmost point of Portugal and of mainland Europe. History Cape St. Vincent was already sacr ...

, by "A View of the British and Spanish Fleets", and, in 1799, by three drawings of the engagement between (under

Captain Bligh Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship was under his command; after being set adrift i ...

) and ''Vryheid'' (Admiral De Winter) in the

Battle of Camperdown The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the ''Zeeslag bij Kamperduin'') was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral ...

on 11 October 1797. These, with three other drawings exhibited in 1802 and 1807, complete the number of his exhibits at the Royal Academy. In 1808 he joined the "Associated Artists in Water-Colours", and sent eleven drawings of shipping and marine subjects to the first exhibition of that short-lived body. He also exhibited twelve works in 1809, and six in 1810, but after that date resigned his membership. His works were carefully drawn and freshly coloured, with great attention to the details of shipping. "Among them are the series of 84 drawings which were engraved by

William Bernard Cooke William Bernard Cooke (1778 – 2 August 1855), was an English line engraver. Life and work Cooke was born in London in 1778. He was the elder brother of George Cooke (1781–1834), and became a pupil of William Angus (1752–1821), the engr ...

for his work 'The Thames'",William Bernard Cooke & Samuel Owen. ''The Thames'':
volume 1Volume 2
(Vernor, Hood & Sharpe and W.B. Cooke, 1811). published in 1811, and eleven others made for the "Picturesque Tour of the River Thames", published by

William Westall William Westall (12 October 1781 – 22 January 1850) was a British landscape artist best known as one of the first artists to work in Australia. Early life Westall was born in Hertford and grew up in London, mostly Sydenham and Hampstead. ...

, R.A., and himself in 1838. Owen died at Sunbury in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, on 8 December 1857, in his 89th year, but had long before ceased to practise his art. Other pictures (in the South Kensington Museum c. 1885) of his include : 'Shipping in a Calm,' 'Indiaman lying-to for a Pilot,' 'Luggers on the Shore,' and seven other river and sea pictures. A small half-length portrait of Owen in watercolours, signed 'Montague, 1805,' was in the possession of Dr. Edward H. of Lewisham High Road.

References

External links

Works by Owen at the NMM
( National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)
HMS Dido engaging the French frigate La Minerve, with H.M.S. Lowestoft chasing L'Artémise beyond, 24 June 1795
(Watercolour -

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

)
A frigate and smaller craft in a stiff breeze off the North Foreland
(Watercolour - Christie's)
An English frigate heeling in the swell off a fortified tower
(Watercolour - Christie's)
Antique prints of Owen's work
(Grosvenor prints) * , a painting engraved by E. Finden for the Forget Me Not annual for 1827, with a poem ''The Cliff's of Dover'' by

Felicia Hemans Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835) was an English poet (who identified as Welsh by adoption). Two of her opening lines, "The boy stood on the burning deck" and "The stately homes of England", have acquired classic statu ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Owen, Samuel 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters British marine artists English watercolourists English illustrators 1769 births 1857 deaths 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists