Circle of Samuel Prout Netley Abbey, Hampshire

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, Circle of Samuel Prout, Netley Abbey, Hampshire.

This sumptuous large watercolour depicts classically picturesque ruins overrun by foliage—the window tracery and red tinge to the stone resemble the remains of Netley Abbey in Hampshire.

Netley Abbey had fallen into decay in the 18th century and by the second half of the century it had become a famous ruin that attracted the attention of Romantic artists and poets seeking subjects that fulfilled Girtin's theory of the Picturesque. In the 19th century, Netley became a popular tourist attraction and in particular the inspiration for a new Gothic tourism (the novelist Jane Austen was among those who visited).

The watercolour is inscribed 'Samuel Prout' on the verso. There is a watercolour of a different view of Netley Abbey by Samuel Prout (1783–1852) in the Tate collection (T08540), of similar size and palette. It is believed that Prout would certainly have been familiar the new approach to composition and the use of the picturesque and the sublime in watercolours by Girtin, Turner, Dayes and others in the 1790s and early 1800s.

In watercolour with gum arabic, brown ink and touches of yellow-green bodycolour. Some scratching out. On wove paper.