John Skinner Prout
(England, Australia 19 Dec 1805 – 29 Sep 1876)
The artist's wife and children, Hobart
Other titles:
(The artist's wife and family, Hobart)
John Skinner Prout's compositions were firmly grounded in English picturesque taste and his practise of drawing 'en plein air' influenced those with whom he came in contact in New South Wales and Tasmania, leading to a spontaneous and naturalistic way of depicting the landscape, an antecedent to late nineteenth-century Impressionism. Prout's compositional simplicity, economy, cool colouring and the spontaneity of his watercolour technique place him far in advance of most of his colonial contemporaries. 'The artist's wife and children, Hobart' depicts Prout's wife and large family picnicking along the banks of the Hobart Rivulet shortly after their arrival in Tasmania in 1844.
© Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000
watercolour, white gouache, gum, scraping out on paper
27.2 x 37.2 cm sheet; 51 x 59.5 x 2.5 cm frame
Signed and dated l.r. corner, brown ink "J S Prout/ 1844".