Background:

These prints are from The British Sportsman, a folio by Samuel Howitt (1756-1822), an accomplished British sporting artist.  The subjects of his drawings ranged from well-known activities (e.g. horse racing) to the obscure (heron hawking).

While originally an amateur artist, Howitt turned professional as a means to supplement his income as a drawing master at a private academy in Ealing.  Howitt was married to the sister of the caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson, best known for his Doctor Syntax illustrations.

Howitt worked in both oils and watercolors, primarily on themes relating to sports and natural history.  In addition to the prints featured on this page, we also have a selection from an earlier series he illustrated to accompany Captain Thomas Williamson's Oriental Field Sports (1807).