Art Brokerage: 1783-1852 Undoubtedly, Samuel Prout has been recognized as one of the greatest watercolour painters from the golden age of this medium. Yet he was also an important early pioneer in the medium of lithography, exploring this art's vast potential of light, shade and texture. Born in Norfolk, Prout received his early art education at the Plymouth Grammar School. He was first employed as a topographical artist at the tender age of fourteen to sketch views of Cornwall. He continued work in a similar vein for the following two decades, gaining a strong reputation for his pencil, lithograph and watercolour views of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Wiltshire and Devon, as well as many English rural views. After 1819, Prout became a frequent traveler on the Continent, visiting and sketching Belgium, Flanders, Italy, Germany, the Rhine and France. The lithographs he created from these excursions influenced artists throughout Europe. Prout's masterful attention to atmosphere, detail and the effects of light and shade were without parallel, and an entire generation of artists after him tried in vain to emulate his art.