Lot 564
After Robert Auchmuty Sproule (1799-1845)
Lot 564 Details
After Robert Auchmuty Sproule (1799-1845), Canadian
SET OF SIX RARE MONTREAL VIEWS, 1830:
VIEW OF THE HARBOUR, MONTREAL;
VIEW OF MONTREAL FROM SAINT HELEN’S ISLAND;
VIEW OF THE CHAMP DE MARS, MONTREAL;
NOTRE DAME STREET, MONTREAL;
SAINT JAMES’S STREET, MONTREAL;
PLACE D’ARMES, MONTREAL
six copperplate engravings, each handcoloured with watercolour by William Satchwell Leney (1769-1831) after watercolours by Sproule. Published by Adolphus Bourne, Montreal, 1830.
Plate 11" x 14.75" — 27.9 x 37.5 cm.
Estimate $6,000-$8,000
Additional Images
Provenance:
The Monck Estate, Montreal
Literature:
Pierre B. Landry, “SPROULE, ROBERT AUCHMUTY,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003
Note:
Robert Auchmuty Sproule, watercolourist, miniaturist and drawing master was born in Athlone (Republic of Ireland) in 1799. He came to Lower Canada in 1826 and settled in Montreal. On September 30, 1826, an advertisement appeared in the Montreal Herald, announcing Sproule as a miniaturist who had studied with “the best Masters in London and Dublin.”
In November 1829 he gave notice of his intention to bring out six views of Montreal, which did in fact appear the following year. The series marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between Sproule and publisher Bourne that lasted until 1834 and led to the introduction of lithography into the colony.
The Montreal and Quebec series of prints are said to be the most handsome series published in Canada demonstrating the maturity achieved in pictorial printmaking in Canada during the first half of the 19th century.