1807 Th. Williamson, Preparations for a Hunt, hand coloured aquatint, sports, india, foreign topography

Thomas Williamson (1758-1817) and Samuel Howitt (1765-1822)

Preparing for a Tiger Hunt

From: Oriental Field Sports being a complete, detailed, and accurate description of the wild sports of the East and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger... and other undomesticated animals... London: Edward Orme, 1807.

Printed before titles.

Aquatint with original hand-coloring

Sheet size: approx. 16.7 x 25.6 cm

Howitt based his superb aquatints on Captain Thomas Williamson’s original on-site sketches. Howitt was a keen sportsman, hunter, rider, and angler. “A self-taught artist, he turned professional when financial difficulties forced him to earn a living. He drew on his enthusiasm and knowledge as a sportsman and produced sporting and natural history paintings, etchings, and illustrations. He sometimes worked in oils but more frequently in watercolours, and he was an accomplished etcher” (Ruth Cohn for DNB).