- Museum number
- 1900,0824.530
- Description
-
Church at St Lo, Normandy; part of the exterior of a Gothic Church ornamented with a crucifix and other sculptures, houses adjoining to left, in foreground number of figures, many wearing white caps and carrying baskets
Watercolour with pen and brown ink
- Production date
- 1783-1852
- Dimensions
-
Height: 354 millimetres
-
Width: 235 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Stainton 1985
In the first half of the nineteenth century Prout was one of the most popular exponents of picturesque architectural topography. His views of the quaint aspects of foreign medieval cities were widely reproduced as engravings and lithographs and appealed to a new middle-class public, who, if they themselves had not yet begun to travel in Europe, vicariously enjoyed the experience in the form of illustrated travelogues or - as they were then known - "picturesque annuals". As a boy, Ruskin had been a pupil of Prout, and never ceased to express admiration for his work, praising his calligraphic outline (which, incidentally seems in fact to go back to Canaletto via his English imitators) Prout's favourite compositional device, as in the present drawing was a corner or fragment of a building seen close up and enlivened by a busy foreground scene. A semi-invalid, most of his foreign travel took place in the 1820s and provided the material for subsequent watercolours. His work can be difficult to date, for he settled into a consistent style and was in the habit of repeating earlier compositions. His influence was disseminated by means of drawing manuals, including 'A Series of Easy Lessons in Landscape Drawing', 1820 and 'Prout's Microcosm: The Artistic Sketchbook of Groups of Figures, Shipping and other Picturesque Objects', 1841, which gave amateurs instructions on how to arrive at suitably picturesque compositions.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1953 Aug BM, P&D, 'Canaletto and the English draughtsmen', no.40
1958 Apr, BM, Eight centuries of landscape ... water-colours, Section 83
1981 May-Aug, Castle Museum, Notts, 'English Watercolours'
1985, BM, British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860, no.141
1991 Jan-Mar, Cleveland MA, Ohio, BM English Watercolours, no. 63
1991 Mar-June, N Carolina MA, BM English Watercolours, no. 63
- Acquisition date
- 1900
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1900,0824.530