Two Gentlemen out Shooting

Oil on canvas

46 x 61 cms
18 1/8 x 24 ins

Samuel Howitt was born in 1756, probably at Staining, the fifth of six children. It is generally believed that the family were quite well connected and financially well off for several generations. Howitt took part in many sporting activities and entertained well, basically living on the inherited family fortune.

He sketched mainly for pleasure and, although he moved in artistic circles, he had no formal training even though some of his friends were eminent artists, including George Morland, John Raphael Smith and Thomas Rowlandson. The last was his brother-in-law for he married Elizabeth Rowlandson in 1779 and they lived at Chigwell for some time.

Eventually he ran out of money and he had to move to London to find a job. He obtained the position of drawing master at Dr Goodenough's Academy in Ealing through the help of his friend the renowned riding master, Henry Angelo. This association did not work out very well as Samuel Howitt frequently failed to appear to meet his commitments at the Academy and his employment ceased. He seems to have been unreliable also in his domestic affairs and his marriage to Elizabeth did not last long although it appears that their parting was comparatively amicable as he left her well provided for in his will when he eventually died in 1823 at Somerstown in London.

Like his friends Morland and Rowlandson, who were heavy drinkers and gamblers, he also had a tremendous artistic output despite his lifestyle. He is primarily known as a watercolourist and print maker. He was an excellent etcher and his large number of sporting prints, many of which were in large sets, included the famous Orme's Collection of British Field Sports and Oriental Field Sports which depicted scenes of tiger shoots and pig sticking in India. There is no actual evidence that he ever went to India but they were based on sketches made in India by Captain T Williamson,

Howitt also illustrated books, including The British Sportsman, 1799/1800 which contained 72 plates- Beck ford's Thoughts on Hunting and a total of 157 plates for The Sporting Magazine.

His oil paintings are comparatively rare and his landscapes were well painted, often having large fern-like leaves in the foreground. In his equestrian pictures the figures and horses always have a look typical of him and his hounds nearly always have a similar stance.

He exhibited his paintings between 1783 and 1815 three times at the Society of Artists, 10 times at the Royal Academy and three times at other exhibitions. Although primarily a sporting artist, he also produced other works such as “The Tollgate at Kennington”, “Smugglers Alarmed”, “Dead Game” and “Views of the Ruins of an Abbey at Ayesby”. The Paul Mellon Collection has examples of his work.

Bibiliography:

Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists, Sally Mitchell
British Sporting Artists, W Shaw Sparrow
Dictionary of Artists, Algernon Graves
Dictionary of British Landscape Painters – M H Grant