“And learn from your poor wandering painter this lesson—for some of the best he had to give you (it is the Alpha of the laws of true human life)—that no city is prosperous in the sight of Heaven unless the peasant sells in its market; that no city is ever righteous in the sight of Heaven unless the noble walks in its street.”
Prout’s work is divided into two clearly defined periods. In the first he drew only English scenes. In 1819 he made his first tour on the Continent, and thenceforth devoted himself almost entirely to foreign subjects. In this devotion Ruskin lamented the “loss of his first love.” His grand wrecks of Indiamen were instinct with that subtle sense of vastness that the Art Teacher felt.
AUTHORITIES
The authorities for the life of Samuel Prout are:—
“Samuel Prout, Artist,” by J. Hine, in the Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, 1879–80.
Art in Devonshire, by Geo. Pycroft, Exeter, 1883, pp. 106–17.
Royet, History of the Old Water-Colour Society, London, 1891.
Ruskin’s “Notes on Samuel Prout and William Hunt,” new edition in Ruskin on Pictures, London, 1902.