The Fish Market, Rome

Samuel Prout was born in Plymouth in 1820. He attended Plymouth Grammar School where the headmaster encouraged his artistic ability.

His first position was as copyist for the antiquarian John Britton (1771-1857) with whom he travelled to Cornwall, making sketches for Britton’s Beauties of England published in 1810.
In 1818 he visited mainland Europe for the first time and was drawn to the picturesque architecture, streets and marketplaces found there. He became known in the 1820s for skillful depictions of architectural subjects. The first to use lithography, he published many of his views in folios which helped to make this new medium popular.

Prout’s work is characterised by its natural composition and skillful handling of the subject.