John Skinner Prout

1806-1876

British/Australian (Plymouth, England; Hobart, Tasmania; London, England)

John Skinner Prout was a painter and a lithographer, and he was largely self-trained as an artist. Born in Plymouth, England, he was active in Britain and Australia. In his earlier years, he spent time in the west of England making topographical views of ancient monuments, sketched the antiquities of Chester, and in 1838 his The Castles and Abbeys of Monmouthshire was published in London. He was also elected a member of the new Society of Painters in Water-Colour.

In 1840 he travelled to Australia where he became one of the most important artists of the period and drew public attention to the fine arts with two series of lectures at the Mechanics' Institute, Sydney. In 1843 he moved to Hobart, Tasmania. He founded an art school and, with G. T. W. B. Boyes (1787-1853), they organized Tasmania's first art exhibition in 1845. In 1848 he returned to England, living in Bristol and London and continuing to produce paintings of Australian scenery and writing on Australia.

Artist profile image: John Skinner Prout. Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, State Library of Tasmania, AUTAS001125883413

John Skinner Prout

Objects

Prout, John Skinner 1806-1876

Scenes on Board an Australian Emigrant Ship

January 20, 1849