Decoy Elephants Leaving the Male Fastened to a Tree / Des Elephants Dressés Laissant le Male Attaché a un Arbre

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Samuel Howitt is thought to have been born to a Quaker family from Nottinghamshire. He is first recorded living in Chigwell, Essex. He was keen sportsman, engaging in hunting, riding and angling, and also a self-taught amateur artist until financial difficulties led him to turn professional. After this he worked as a painter, etcher and illustrator of animal and sporting subjects. He exhibited at the Incorporated Society of Artists and Royal Academy and illustrated many sporting and zoological books. In 1779 he married the sister of the Thomas Rowlandson, whose work influenced him. Samuel and Elizabeth had three children. He lived in London almost continually from 1793, but for a brief period in Richmond, Yorkshire. He died in Somers Town.
Henri Merke was a Swiss aquatint engraver of sporting, genre and costume subjects after works by contemporary artist. He is thought to have been born in Zurich, but he worked in London.

Places

Asia

Subjects

rope, big game hunting, topography, tree, elephant, hill

Materials & Techniques

aquatint, coloured aquatint

Artist

Samuel Howitt (1756/7 - 1823)
Henri Merke

Title

Decoy Elephants Leaving the Male Fastened to a Tree / Des Elephants Dressés Laissant le Male Attaché a un Arbre

Date

1 September 1805

Medium

Coloured aquatint

Acquisition

Purchased from Eyre and Hobhouse, March 1983

GAC number

16156