Victor Prout

VICTOR PROUT

by

Robert J. Kirkpatrick

Victor Prout had a lengthy career – around 45 years – as an illustrator of both children’s and other books and for some of the leading periodicals of his time – yet he is very much forgotten today. If anything, he is best-known as having been an active supporter of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 1900s. His upbringing was not without a certain degree of trauma.

Given the full name of Victor William Prout, he came from an artistic family. His paternal grandfather was John Skinner Prout (1805-1876), an artist born in Plymouth, Devon, who emigrated to Australia in 1840 along with his family of eight children. (John Skinner Prout’s father John was the elder brother of the artist Samuel Prout, (1783-1852) who was a noted watercolour architectural artist, who became Painter in Water-Colours in Ordinary to King George IV and later to Queen Victoria). John Skinner set up a lithographic printing company in Sydney, and at the same time tried to establish himself as an artist in oils and watercolours (prior to emigrating he had been elected a member of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1838.) Financial constraints led him to move to Tasmania (as it is now) in 1844. He returned to England in June 1848, where he continued his career as an artist and illustrator.

One of his sons, Victor Albert (born in Bristol on 9 December 1835) became an engraver and photographer. In 1852 he spent some time in Boston, America, learning how to use the daguerreotype process, which had been invented in 1839. After his return, in 1855 his family moved from 12 Camden Terrace, St. Pancras, to 38 St. Augustine’s Road, Camden. Victor Albert became very active as a photographer, exhibiting regularly with the London Photographic Society. In 1858, he went into partnership with Thomas Bolton, a wood engraver, bookseller and publisher, who lived nearby, although this partnership floundered when Victor was declared bankrupt in 1858.

This did not stop Victor from marrying Bolton’s step-daughter, Amy Barber, on 10 February 1860. Amy was the daughter of William Thomas Barber and his wife Jane – William Thomas had died in 1842 and Jane had married Thomas Bolton in 1845. Victor and Amy went on to have five children: Victor William (1862), Violet Amy (1864), Lilian Kate (1866), Mary Agnes (1867) and Ernest Sydney (1869). (Violet Amy went on to marry the illustrator Harold Copping, who was actually her cousin, in 1888 – he and Victor William Prout became close friends and remained so all their lives.)

Later in 1860 Victor Albert’s book Stereoscopic Views of the Interior of Westminster Abbey was published by J. Elliot. Two years later, Virtue & Co. published his The Thames from London to Oxford in Forty Photographs, a groundbreaking collection of panoramic photographs.

At the time of the 1861 census Victor Albert and his wife were living at 6 Camden Street, Camden.  Victor William Prout was born on 25 August 1862 and baptized on 2 November 1862 at St. Mary’s Church, St. Marylebone. The family subsequently moved to 15 Baker Street, and then to East Molesey, Surrey, from where Victor Albert was again declared bankrupt in 1865. At the end of the following year, he took his family to Australia, where he established a reputation as a photographer, and becoming a partner in a studio in Sydney. The partnership, with William Freeman, was dissolved by mutual consent in March 1868, and two years later, following a severe recession, Victor Albert was again declare insolvent. To make matters worse, Victor’s wife Amy was committed to an asylum in June 1874, diagnosed with “religious melancholia.” (She was eventually discharged in August 1876, and returned to England the following year.)

Victor and his children returned to England in 1875, and Victor was immediately taken by his brother Edgar to the St. Pancras Workhouse, where he was certified “of unsound mind,” and described as a pauper. He was subsequently admitted to the Sussex Lunatic Asylum in September 1875. His children were sent to live with John Skinner Prout at 4 Leighton Crescent, Kentish Town. Victor William then began spending time with Thomas Bolton at his home at 7 Danes Inn, Westminster, and in October 1875 he was enrolled in the nearby St. Clement Danes Grammar School, leaving in March 1878.

John Skinner Prout died in August 1876, and Victor Albert Prout died on 17 April 1877 at the Sussex Lunatic Asylum. The cause of Victor’s death was given as “progressive paralysis of the insane,” now known to have been caused by syphilis. Amy Prout returned to England in 1877 and went to live with Jane Bolton, her mother, at 2 Ember Villas, East Molesey.

After leaving school Victor William Prout became an assistant to Thomas Bolton, and in the 1881 census they were both recorded working as wood engravers and living at 7 Danes Inn. But Prout had ambitions to be an artist, and presumably developed his skills from what he had learned as an engraver. His first illustrations appear to have been published in two books in 1885. In 1888 he began contributing to The Leisure Hour, and over the following 12 years he contributed to The Infants’ Magazine, The Friendly Visitor, Cassell’s Family Magazine, The Royal Magazine and The Windsor Magazine (for which he worked particularly actively between 1903 and 1916).

At the time of the 1891 census he was living at Ember Villas, East Molesey, Surrey, with Janet Bolton (recorded as his step-mother) and his mother Amy Prout. On 15 October 1896, at St. Pancras Church, he married Isabel Knaggs (born in St. Pancras in 1867 and the daughter of Henry Knaggs, a G.P. in Kentish Town). She had been educated at the London Collegiate School, Camden Road, and was working as a clerk in an insurance office at the time. They immediately settled at “Glencoe”, 6 Stonard Road, Palmers Green, north London, where Prout built a studio in the back garden. They went on to have two children: Eleanor on 8 December 1898 and Hazel on 14 May 1902.

In the meantime Victor Prout had illustrated around seven books between 1890 and 1900, including two for the Religious Tract Society, for whom he continued to work until around 1916, illustrating just over 30 books for them. These included books by Hesba Stretton, Annie S. Swan, Mrs Horne de Vaizey, Amy Whipple, Evelyn Everett Green and Florence Bone. He went on to illustrate re-issues of several of R.M. Ballantyne’s boys’ adventure stories for Ward, Lock & Co., as well as a number of story collections for George G. Harrap & Co. He also occasionally worked for S.W. Partridge & Co., Collins, and Blackie & Son.

Most of the books he illustrated were stories for girls, but his work did appear in the occasional boys’ story, such as re-issues of two novels by W.H.G. Kingston, and stories by F.M. Holmes and M.B. Manwell. He also illustrated novels by Harold Bindloss, Guy Boothby and the American novelist Archibald Clavering Gunter.

From 1900 onwards he contributed to a further range of periodicals, including The Harmsworth Magazine, Cassell’s Magazine, The Sphere, The Sketch, The Girl’s Own Paper, The Graphic, The Quiver, The Sunday Magazine, Good Words, Pearson’s Magazine, Gunter’s Magazine, The Sunday at Home, The Church Monthly, The Strand Magazine, The Wide World Magazine and The Illustrated London News.

He became particularly associated with The Sphere. While most of his early illustrations were of national and international events, some of his illustrations portrayed social issues, such as poverty, homelessness and drug addiction. In January 1902 he produced a sympathetic drawing of women chainmakers in Cradley Heath, in the Black Country. The following month, he drew a picture of women cleaning coal at the top of a coal mine pit shaft, and in November 1905 he illustrated the 6,000-strong women’s march down Whitehall to protest against unemployment.

It was possibly these illustrations that prompted his interest in women’s suffrage. He began speaking out in support of enfranchisement, writing to the periodical Votes for Women in 1909 and hosting, chairing and addressing meetings. At the same time, his wife was also active, for example visiting suffragettes who had been imprisoned in Holloway Prison. His support for women’s suffrage was elegantly expressed when it came to the 1911 census. He sheltered several women in his studio so that they could boycott the census, and instead of filling in the census form as legally required he wrote an albeit apologetic statement across it:

I wish to protest against the terrible treatment women have recently been subjected to as the result of the Liberal Government’s method of repressing the agitation in favour of Women’s Enfranchisement and I refuse to fill this census form because women are claiming that until they are given the rights of Citizenship they should not be counted and I leave out the men as an act of sympathy with that claim. All the withheld information will be freely given as soon as a Women’s Enfranchisement Bill becomes law.

Prout continued to refuse to co-operate even after the local Registrar had written to him, emphasising that his protest was aimed at the Government and not at him. The census enumerator for the district eventually filled in a form himself, based on the best information available.

Prout became more and more active in the women’s movement, promoting meetings and in 1912 becoming the Honorary Secretary of the Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage. In July 1912 he was ejected from Kennington Theatre during a disturbance prompted by an assault on David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (after which a fellow protester was jailed for two months).

By 1918 Prout had moved to 14 Pembroke Road, Kensington, where he again built himself a studio in the back garden. His work as an illustrator had almost dried up – quite why is not known – and he and his family became increasingly reliant on financial help from his wife’s family. At around this time he began working for Hepworth Studios, a film company founded by Cecil Hepworth, working as a scene painter and actor – he appeared in five films between 1918 and 1921.

He is also credited with writing one book, Great Leaders; A Book of Little Biographies of Famous Men, published by Cassell & Co. in 1921.

In the early 1920s he moved to 187 Camden Road, St. Pancras. His wife died, unexpectedly of cancer, at the Homeopathic Hospital in Great Ormond Street, on 20 November 1935, leaving an estate valued at £3,324. He himself remained at Camden Road, and died while visiting his daughter Eleanor at her home at 19 Manwood Avenue, Canterbury, Kent, on 30 April 1950, leaving £1,081.

For someone who was comparatively prolific, as both a book illustrator – he illustrated around 100 books – and as an illustrator for influential periodicals like The Sphere, it is very strange that he has been almost wholly airbrushed from history. He was mentioned briefly, and without comment, in James Thorpe’s English Illustration: The Nineties (1935), and in Simon Houfe’s The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914  (1978) he is simply, and quite erroneously, referred to as a “Watercolour painter.”

Further reading:  Victor Albert Prout: A Mid-Victorian Photographer (1835-1877) by Joan Osmond, J. & J. Osmond, 2013.

PUBLICATIONS

Non-fiction
Great Leaders; A Book of Little Biographies of Famous Men by Victor Prout, Cassell & Co., 1921

Books illustrated by Victor Prout
The Birds of Lancashire by F.S. Mitchell, J. Van Voorst, 1885 (with J.G. Keulemans)
English Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil, Religious Tract Society, 1885 (with other artists)
Inez: A Tale of the Alamo by Augusta Jane Evans, Ward, Lock & Co., 1890
Vashti, or “Until Death Do Us Part” by Augusta J. Evans Wilson, Walter Scott Pub. Co., 1890 (re-issue)
Little Meg’s Children and Alone in London by Hesba Stretton, Religious Tract Society, 1892 (with Harold Copping)
Crime and Punishment by F. Dostoevsky, trans. by Frederick Whishaw, Walter Scott Pub. Co., 1893
Icelandic Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil by Frederick Howells, Religious Tract Society, 1893 (with other artists)
Two Knapsacks in the Channel Islands by Jasper Branthwaite & Frank Maclean, Jarrold & Sons, 1897
Our Gracious Queen: Pictures and Stories from Her Majesty’s Life by Catherine Augusta Walton, Religious Tract Society, 1897
The Bairn’s Bible: Introduction of the Study of the Old Book by W.T. Stead, “Review of Reviews” Office, 1900 (with Brinsley Le Fanu)
The Dog Crusoe and His Master: A Story of Adventure in the Western Prairies by R.M. Ballantyne, Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1900(?) (re-issue)
The Wind that Shakes the Barley by M.B. Manwell, Religious Tract Society, 1901
Pictures and Stories from Queen Victoria’s Life by O.F. Walton, Religious Tract Society, 1901
Tales by Douglas Jerrold, Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1891
The Woman of Death by Guy Boothby, C. Arthur Pearson, 1900
A Tale of Two Stowaways by C. Ellis, Religious Tract Society, 1901
A Houseful of Girls by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey, Religious Tract Society, 1902 (re-issue)
The Red Eric, or The Whaler’s Last Cruise by R.M. Ballantyne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1903 (re-issue)
The Making of Teddy by Eva Jameson, The Religious Tract Society, 1903
Cousin Olga, or A Summer in Germany by Kate Thompson Sizer, Religious Tract Society, 1903
Martin Rattler by R.M. Ballantyne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1903 (re-issue)
El Dorado by Robert Cromie, Langton & Hall, 1904
When Daddie’s Ship Comes In by Beatrice M. Purser, Religious Tract Society, 1904
From the Cliffs of Croaghaun by Robert Cromie, Saalfield Pub. Co., (USA), 1904
Sunshine Within by J.R. Miller, Hodder & Stoughton, 1904 (with Hilda Gargett)
The Gorilla Hunters by R.M. Ballantyne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1904 (re-issue)
Jessica’s Mother by Hesba Stretton, Religious Tract Society, 1904 (re-issue)
It Is Never Too Late to Mend: A Matter-of-Fact Romance by Charles Reade, Ward, Lock & Co., 1904 (re-issue)
The Crimson Blind by Fred M. White, Ward, Lock & Co., 1905
Phil Conway: A Novel by Archibald Clavering Gunter, Ward, Lock & Co., 1905
How the Plot Answered and other stories by A.M.C., Drummond’s Tract Depot, 1905
Stories from Greek History: Retold from Herodotus by H.L. Havell, George G. Harrap & Co., 1905
Stories of Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws Retold from Old Ballads by Joseph Walter McSpadden, George G. Harrap & Co., 1905
Stories from Wagner by Joseph Walker McSpadden, George G. Harrap & Co., 1905 (with other artists)
Pictures of Poverty: Being Studies of Distress in West Ham by Arthur E. Copping, “The Daily News”, 1905 (with Harold Copping)
Kenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Collins, 1905(?) (re-issue)
Night and Morning by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Collins, 1905(?) (re-issue)
My Japanese Prince by Archibald Clavering Gunter, Ward, Lock & Co., 1906
Twixt Sword and Glove by Archibald Clavering Gunter, Ward, Lock & Co., 1906
Stories from Dickens by Joseph Walter McSpadden, George G. Harraap & Co., 1906 (with other artists)
Stories from Scottish History By Madalen Edgar, George G. Harrap & Co., 1906 (with other artists)
Stories from Chaucer, Retold from the Canterbury Tales by Joseph Walter McSpadden, George G. Harrap & Co., 1907 (with other artists)
The Chateau by the Lake by Amy Le Feuvre, Religious Tract Society, 1907
The Holy War: Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus etc etc. by John Bunyan, Religious Tract Society, 1907
The Imposter by Harold Bindloss, Ward, Lock & Co., 1908
The Fighting Line by Annie S. Swan, Religious Tract Society, 1908
The Liberationist by Harold Bindloss, Ward, Lock & Co., 1908
Cassy by Hesba Stretton, Religious Tract Society, 1908 (re-issue)
The Lighthouse: The Story of a Great Fight Between Man and Sea by R.M. Ballantyne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1908 (re-issue)
The Fighting Line by Annie S. Swan, Religious Tract Society, 1909
A Girl’s Stronghold by Eliza Fanny Pollard, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1909
Love the Intruder by Helen A. Watson, Religious Tract Society, 1909
Harry Escombe: A Tale of Adventure in Peru by Harry Collingwood, Blackie & Son, 1910
The Fitzgerald Family by M.S. Madden, Religious Tract Society, 1910
Kiddie, or The Shining Way by Amy Whipple, Religious Tract Society, 1910
Margaret, or The Hidden Treasure by N.F.P.K., Religious Tract Society, 1910
Ursula Tempest by Evelyn Everett Green, Religious Tract Society, 1910
Far Above Rubies by Constance E. Weigall, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1910
A Thorny Path by Hesba Stretton, Religious Tract Society, 1910
True Blue by W.H.G. Kingston, Ward, Lock & Co., 1910 (re-issue)
The Three Midshipmen by W.H.G. Kingston, Ward, Lock & Co., 1910 (re-issue)
The Red Eric, or The Whaler’s Last Cruise by R.M. Ballantyne, E.W. Cole, 1910 (re-issue)
A Thorny Path by Hesba Stretton, Religious Tract Society, 1910 (re-issue)
A Book of Golden Deeds by Charlotte M. Yonge, Collins, 1910 (re-issue)
Brave Sidney Somers, or The Voyage of the Eastern Adventurer by F.M. Holmes, Blackie & Son, 1911
The Wonderful Gate by Florence Bone, Religious Tract Society, 1911
A Girl from Canada by Edith C. Kenyon, Religious Tract Society, 1911
“Where the Cross Roads Meet” by Mary E. Kendrew, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1911
Betty Martindale’s Secret by Lena Tyack, Religious Tract Society, 1911
Deep Down: A Tale of the Cornish Mines by R.M. Ballantyne, Ward, Lock & Co., 1911 (re-issue)
The Crew of the Rectory by M.B. Manwell, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1912
Branan the Pict: A Story of the Days of St. Columba by Mary Frances Outram, Religious Tract Society, 1912
The Sail of the Silver Barge by Florence Bone, Religious Tract Society, 1912
Aunt Patience: A Story for Girls by Evelyn Everett Green, Religious Tract Spciety, 1912
Barney Boy by Laura A. Barter, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1912
Heart o’ Gold, or The Little Princess: A Story for Girls by Katharine Tynan, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1912
With Beating Wings: An Australian Story by Vera G. Dwyer, Ward, Lock & Co., 1913
Rupert’s Resolve by Laura A. Barter, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1913
Night and Morning by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Collins, 1913 (re-issue)
The Way of Transgressors by L.S.D., Arthur H. Stockwell, 1914(?)
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace, Collins, 1914 (re-issue)
Dear Miss Meg and other stories by Ruth Lamb, Religious Tract Society, 1915
A Madcap Family, or Sybil’s Home by Amy Le Feuvre, S.W. Partridge & Co., 1916
Pickles: A Red Cross Heroine by Edith C. Kenyon, Collins, 1916
The Taming of Winifred by Phyllis Mord, Religious Tract Society, 1916
Bunty’s Book of Heroes by Herbert Hayens, Collins, 1917(?) (with other artists)
Expelled from School by Elsie J. Oxenham, Collins, 1919
Infelice: A Novel by Augusta J. Evans Wilson, Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1920(?) (re-issue)
My Picture Book of Animals by Harry Golding, Ward, Lock & Co., 1923 (with other artists)
The Golf Grounds of the South-West by Charles Eyre Pascoe, British Transport Commission, (1920s) (with Holland Tringham)
The Little Admiral by T.C. Bridges, Collins, 1930
Sylvia’s Lovers by Mrs Gaskell, Collins , (1930?) (re-issue)

Dates not known
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, Ward, Lock & Co., (re-issue)
Novels by Eminent Hands by W.M. Thackeray, Collins, (re-issue)
Eugenie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac, Collins, (re-issue)
Betty Trevor by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey, Religious Tract Society, (?) (re-issue)