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John Skinner Prout (19 December 1805 – 29 August 1876) was a British painter, writer, lithographer and art teacher who worked in Australia in the 1840s.
'Prout, John Skinner (1805–1876)'
Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 23 May 2020. His father was the elder brother of watercolourist
MR. PROUT'S LECTURES ON PAINTING. (1841, December 17). The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved May 20, 2020. Skinner Prout married Maria Heathilla, who was a musician and painter, on 19 June 1828. They had eleven children; six daughters (Matilda born in 1828, Anna Maria born in 1831, Rosa Heathilla born in 1833 and Agnes born in 1838,Mary Frederika and Amy) and five sons (Frederick born in 1834, Victor Albert born in 1835, Edwin born in 1837, Edgar born in 1839 and Mark). On 3 December 1838, in London, Prout was elected a member of the New Society of Painters in water colours. Hoping to improve his fortunes Prout emigrated to Australia with wife and eight children, arriving in Sydney 14 December 1840. Amongst the possessions that he brought with him to the colony of
In the first four years of his residence in Sydney, between 1840 and 1844, Prout undertook a number of sketching tours in the districts around Sydney. Prout followed the route of many artists of the period, journeying west across the Blue Mountains towards Bathurst, south to
''An illustrated handbook of the voyage to Australia and a visit to the gold fields''
1852 and ''A Magical Trip to the Gold Regions'', 1853. These publications have raised the question as the whether Prout returned to Australia, as he claimed the sketches for the illustrated volumes were made on site in 1852. His grandson was the illustrator Harold Copping who married in 1888 his cousin Violet Amy Prout (1865–1894) daughter of son Victor Albert. Prout died at Kentish Town, London, on 29 August 1876 and was buried in a family grave on the eastern side of
File:John Skinner Prout, The Derwent Crags, Hobarton, Decr.9, '46.jpg, John Skinner Prout, ''The Derwent Crags, Hobarton, Decr.9, '46'', 1846; watercolour; 24.4 x 33.4 cm.
T0078898
/ref> *'Blue Mountain Scenery', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Brady's Bay, Tasmania', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Cockatoo Island, Sydney', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Fort Macquarie, 1843', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Neutral Bay in 1843', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Old House, Manchester', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Street Scene', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Derwent, Tasmania', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Escarpment', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Old Tank Stream, Sydney', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Waterfall', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897.
2261516
*John Skinner Prout, ''Journal of a voyage from Plymouth to Sydney, in Australia: on board the emigrant ship Royal Sovereign, with a short description of Sydney'' (London: Smith, Elder, 1844). Online at National Library of Australi
2759188
and the State Library of New South Wale
DSM/981.1/P
*John Skinner Prout, ''Prout's dioramic views of Australia, illustrative of convict and emigrant life: exhibited in the theatre of the Western Literary and Scientific Institution'' (London: Printed by M. Snell, 1850?). National Library of Australi
111805
*Broadsides promoting Prout's moving panorama of a voyage to Australia and visit to the gold fields exhibited daily at 309 Regent Street, London, 1853–1854. Online at State Library of New South Wales
PAM 85/803
*John Skinner Prout, ''An illustrated handbook of the voyage to Australia and a visit to the gold fields'' (London?: s.n., 1852?). Online at State Library of New South Wale
MD 4 S 17
* Brown, T., Kolenberg, H., & Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery. (1986). Skinner Prout in Australia, 1840–48, Hobart: Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery. .
Prout's works
catalogue list, National Library of Australia. *Michael Organ
website. * Sketches in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Norfolk Island, ca. 1841–1847, by John Skinner Prout, Sketchbook, State Library of New South Wale
DL PX 49John Skinner Prout
Design and Art Australia Online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prout, John Skinner Australian printmakers 19th-century English painters English male painters English printmakers 1805 births 1876 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century Australian painters 19th-century English male artists Australian landscape painters Australian etchers Australian art teachers Australian male painters
Biography
Skinner Prout was born on 19 December 1805 in Plymouth, Devon, England. He is the eldest child of John Prout and Maria Skinner.. W. Hodgman'Prout, John Skinner (1805–1876)'
Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 23 May 2020. His father was the elder brother of watercolourist
Samuel Prout
Samuel Prout painted by John Jackson in 1831
Market Day by Samuel Prout
A View in Nuremberg by Samuel Prout
Utrecht Town Hall by Samuel Prout in 1841
Samuel Prout (; 17 September 1783 – 10 February 1852) was a British watercolourist, and ...
.DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCEMR. PROUT'S LECTURES ON PAINTING. (1841, December 17). The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), p. 2. Retrieved May 20, 2020. Skinner Prout married Maria Heathilla, who was a musician and painter, on 19 June 1828. They had eleven children; six daughters (Matilda born in 1828, Anna Maria born in 1831, Rosa Heathilla born in 1833 and Agnes born in 1838,Mary Frederika and Amy) and five sons (Frederick born in 1834, Victor Albert born in 1835, Edwin born in 1837, Edgar born in 1839 and Mark). On 3 December 1838, in London, Prout was elected a member of the New Society of Painters in water colours. Hoping to improve his fortunes Prout emigrated to Australia with wife and eight children, arriving in Sydney 14 December 1840. Amongst the possessions that he brought with him to the colony of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
was a lithographic press, which enabled him to set up the 'J. S. Prout and Co. Australian Lithographic Establishment.'
In the first four years of his residence in Sydney, between 1840 and 1844, Prout undertook a number of sketching tours in the districts around Sydney. Prout followed the route of many artists of the period, journeying west across the Blue Mountains towards Bathurst, south to Broulee
Broulee is a town on the south coast of New South Wales between Batemans Bay and Moruya. At the , the town had a population of 1,717. Just off the beach is Broulee Island, currently joined to the mainland, but in past years the connecting spit ...
and the Illawarra district, and north to Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
and Port Stephens. Returning from these travels, Prout would work up his sketches into finished works in lithographs, watercolour and oil paint for sale.
Whilst Prout was a resident in Sydney held exhibitions and presented lectures on the technique of drawing and painting in watercolour. His works original watercolours sold well and he produced a series of lithographic views of the colony, a number of which were in the 1842 publication ''Sydney illustrated''.
Due to the lacklustre market for his works, competition by more established artists such as Conrad Martens
Conrad Martens (21 March 1801 – 21 August 1878) was an English-born landscape painter active on HMS ''Beagle'' from 1833 to 1834. He arrived in Australia in 1835 and painted there until his death in 1878.
Life and work
Conrad Martens' f ...
, and the depressed economic circumstances of Sydney during the 1840s, Prout and his family moved once more. After a visit to the colony of Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...
(Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
) in January he arrived with his family in April 1844. Here Prout was more successful, drawing the patronage of the Governor Sir John Franklin
Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through t ...
and his wife and held his first exhibition there in 1845.
Prout returned to England in June 1848. Upon his return, at the Western Literary and Scientific Institution, Leicester Square, he exhibited his work on life in the Australian colonies, and lectured on convicts, bushrangers and Aboriginals. In the 1850s he produced illustrated handbooks detailing his travels in Australia. Among the''An illustrated handbook of the voyage to Australia and a visit to the gold fields''
1852 and ''A Magical Trip to the Gold Regions'', 1853. These publications have raised the question as the whether Prout returned to Australia, as he claimed the sketches for the illustrated volumes were made on site in 1852. His grandson was the illustrator Harold Copping who married in 1888 his cousin Violet Amy Prout (1865–1894) daughter of son Victor Albert. Prout died at Kentish Town, London, on 29 August 1876 and was buried in a family grave on the eastern side of
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
.
Gallery
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
File:John Skinner Prout, Fairlight Glen on the Warragambra.jpg, John Skinner Prout, ''Fairlight Glen on the Warragambra (i.e. Warragamba)'', c.1843, watercolour; 27 x 37.5 cm. National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
File:Tank Stream, Sydney, 1842, John Skinner Prout, State Library of New South Wales.jpg, Tank Stream, Sydney, 1842, John Skinner Prout 18 x 26 cm. watercolour (sepia wash) State Library of New South Wales
File:John Skinner Prout - Porche de L'eglese de Chartres.jpg, John Skinner Prout, Porsche de la Cathedrale de Reims, watercolour 45.5 cm x 36.5 cm .Private Collection, Auckland New Zealand
File:Spring Cove Sydney Harbour, 1843 John Skinner Prout.jpg, Spring Cove Sydney Harbour, 1843, watercolour, John Skinner Prout, State Library of New South Wales
File:Port Jackson from Dawes Point, ca. 1842 J.S. Prout.jpg, Port Jackson from Dawes Point, Ca. 1842, John Skinner Prout, State Library of New South Wales
File:BrouleeProut1843.jpg, Broulee
Broulee is a town on the south coast of New South Wales between Batemans Bay and Moruya. At the , the town had a population of 1,717. Just off the beach is Broulee Island, currently joined to the mainland, but in past years the connecting spit ...
in 1843. John Skinner Prout. Collection of National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
Exhibited Works
*'Albion Mills, 1843', exhibited in the National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897.Art Gallery of New South Wales, et al., Art Loan Exhibition, Catalogue, 1897.State Library of New South WalesT0078898
/ref> *'Blue Mountain Scenery', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Brady's Bay, Tasmania', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Cockatoo Island, Sydney', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Fort Macquarie, 1843', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Neutral Bay in 1843', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Old House, Manchester', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Street Scene', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Derwent, Tasmania', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Escarpment', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'The Old Tank Stream, Sydney', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897. *'Waterfall', National Art Gallery of New South Wales loan exhibition, 1897.
Publications
*John Skinner Prout, ''Sydney illustrated'' (Sydney: J.S. Prout, 1843). Online at National Library of Australi2261516
*John Skinner Prout, ''Journal of a voyage from Plymouth to Sydney, in Australia: on board the emigrant ship Royal Sovereign, with a short description of Sydney'' (London: Smith, Elder, 1844). Online at National Library of Australi
2759188
and the State Library of New South Wale
DSM/981.1/P
*John Skinner Prout, ''Prout's dioramic views of Australia, illustrative of convict and emigrant life: exhibited in the theatre of the Western Literary and Scientific Institution'' (London: Printed by M. Snell, 1850?). National Library of Australi
111805
*Broadsides promoting Prout's moving panorama of a voyage to Australia and visit to the gold fields exhibited daily at 309 Regent Street, London, 1853–1854. Online at State Library of New South Wales
PAM 85/803
*John Skinner Prout, ''An illustrated handbook of the voyage to Australia and a visit to the gold fields'' (London?: s.n., 1852?). Online at State Library of New South Wale
MD 4 S 17
* Brown, T., Kolenberg, H., & Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery. (1986). Skinner Prout in Australia, 1840–48, Hobart: Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery. .
References
External links
Prout's works
catalogue list, National Library of Australia. *Michael Organ
website. * Sketches in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Norfolk Island, ca. 1841–1847, by John Skinner Prout, Sketchbook, State Library of New South Wale
DL PX 49
Design and Art Australia Online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prout, John Skinner Australian printmakers 19th-century English painters English male painters English printmakers 1805 births 1876 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century Australian painters 19th-century English male artists Australian landscape painters Australian etchers Australian art teachers Australian male painters