SAMUEL PROUT, O.W.S. (PLYMOUTH 1783-1852 LONDON)

The composition is similar to Prout’s lithograph of The Ducal Palace and Pillars of St Mark, Venice, published in Sketches in France, Switzerland and Italy, 1839 (see T. Wilcox, Samuel Prout, A Grand Tour in Watercolour, London, 2017, p. 86, fig. 19). The publication of such views in large-scale albums allowed them to become popular and accessible amongst a wide audience, making the original watercolours all the more desirable.

It has been suggested that the present watercolour may have been the watercolour of the same subject exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society, 1838 (Ducal Palace, Venice, no. 188) and purchased by HM Queen Victoria (now untraced). Though no further records of this transaction or its deaccession from the collection exist.

For another Venetian view by the artist, see lot 239.

We are grateful to Timothy Wilcox for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.