Samuel Howitt (British, 1765-1822)
Inscribed A. Equina [Roan Antelope Hippotragus equinus (É. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1803)]
Watercolor and pencil on paper
Signed ‘Howitt’ lower right; inscribed ‘A. Equina’ lower center
Paper size: 7 1/2 x 4 1/4 in.; frame size: 17 x 14 1/2 in.
Provenance: Walter Ramsden Fawkes (1769–1825), Farnley Hall, Otley, Yorkshire
Inventory no. AP02599

Antilope equina, the “equine antelope,” was the name given by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to the roan antelope, one of the largest antelopes of Africa, found in the savannas and open woodlands from Senegal and Gambia across the Sahel to Ethiopia and south through East Africa to Angola, Zambia, and northern South Africa. Cuvier’s description, published in English in 1827, reads like a gloss on Howitt’s sheet: “As large as a horse, reddish gray, head brown, a white spot before each eye, a mane on the neck.” 

The roan was known in Europe chiefly from skins and horns brought from the Cape and West Africa, and Howitt’s lithe, gazelle-like figure, with its emphatic black and white face mask and backswept ringed horns, reflects that indirect knowledge; the living animal is far more massive. The plate of the “Roan Antelope” in Griffith’s Animal Kingdom shows how British naturalists were working to fix the appearance of the species in exactly these years.

A country gentleman from Chigwell, in Essex, Samuel Howitt’s entry into the world of art was prompted as a means of meeting financial obligations which he incurred as a result of his carefree nature.  In reaction to his solid Quaker upbringing, Howitt was an active participant in the thriving London social scene of gambling, hunting, fishing, and sporting.  He could often be found making the rounds of London’s drinking houses with his brother-in-law, the noted caricaturist, and watercolorist, Thomas Rowlandson.  His marriage to Rowlandson’s sister was not a success and apparently his passion for fishing and sporting excursions led to their separation.

Howitt’s initial artistic efforts were somewhat crude, but his natural talents quickly and skillfully progressed to a remarkable degree. Some of his individual works were exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1815.  His quick fretted outlines, which were then washed in, reflect the influence of Rowlandson.  He was prolific in oil and watercolor, and as a printmaker and his lighthearted, boisterous works appeared in numerous sporting and other publications.  In 1808 he provided illustrations for The Angler’s Manual.  In 1812, 70 of his illustrations appeared in the British Sportsman, and later a large group appeared in The Old Sporting Magazine.  

However, Howitt’s best-known work is Oriental Field Sports, a collection of 40 attractive and dramatic aquatints drawn by Howitt after the original sketches of his friend Captain Thomas Williamson.  The main purpose of the book was the explication and illustration of the excitement and peculiarities of Indian game hunting, both big and small.  Williamson had explored the innermost regions of Bengal in search of the exotic Asian prize and from his sketches, Howitt produced some of the most prized images of big-game hunting.

His habit of drawing animals from life at the Tower of London was the basis of the 1811 A New Work of Animals, 56 carefully executed designs based on the fables of Aesop. It is likely that the Tower of London was also the source for many of the watercolors of animals and birds here presented, although the notation of Bullock on some would indicate that he also used specimens from this renowned dealer in animal skins.  

The companion album to the collection is now in London’s Natural History Museum and forms part of the holdings of the famed banker, Baron Rothschild of Tring.  Rothschild was a keen amateur scientist and from the age of seven started collecting specimens.  He founded the Zoological Museum at Tring, opening it to the public in 1892.  Moreover, he wrote several articles on ornithology and held distinguished positions as Trustee of the Natural History Museum, Chairman of the British Ornithologists’ Club (1913-1918) and President of the British Ornithologist’s Union (1923-1928).  

It is not certain as to when the two albums of Howitt’s drawings were divided and thus difficult to establish a definite provenance to the Rothschild collection for the set pictured here.  However, they are fine examples of the work of one of the leading natural history painters of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.