The original artist is
C.G. Crehen, a lithographer who was born
in Paris circa 1829, and who immigrated to the US in
1850. He is known for his portraits and as a skilled
artist. He traveled around the US and worked for
printing companies in many of the larger cities.
SPROULE, ROBERT AUCHMUTY, (1799-1845) water-colourist, miniaturist, and drawing-master; b. in Athlone (Republic of Ireland),
second son of Thomas Sproule and Marianne Ardesoif;
m. 8 Oct. 1831 Jane Hopper in Montreal, and they had two
sons and four daughters; d. 1845 in March Township,
Upper Canada.

Robert Auchmuty Sproule came to Lower Canada in 1826 and
settled in Montreal. On 30 September he put an
advertisement in the Montreal Herald, announcing himself
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. Published
by Adolphus Bourne,
they had been engraved on copperplate by William
Satchwell Leney from Sproule’s water-colours. The series
marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between
Bourne and Sproule that lasted until 1834 and led to the
introduction of lithography into the colony. Bourne went
to London lithographer Charles Joseph Hullmandel in 1832
for the printing of a group of works by Sproule,
including four views of Quebec and a portrait of
Louis-Joseph Papineau.
He returned to Montreal with a lithographic press and
subsequently used it for Sproule’s drawings. The results
included the frontispiece for the Montreal Museum or Journal of Literature and Arts in
December 1832, a portrait of Archbishop Bernard-Claude Panet, one of St Francis Xavier, and a view of the steamer Great Britain, all
three published in 1833, and a view of the church of
Notre-Dame in Montreal printed in 1834. As well, Sproule
transferred illustrations by Alexander Jamieson Russel
and several others to stone for lithographing; they were
printed by Bourne for Hawkins’s picture of Quebec; with historical
recollections, a work by Alfred Hawkins that came out at Quebec in 1834.
In Montreal Sproule also taught drawing, a common
practice among miniaturists of the period. His frequent
moves with his family after 1834, however, suggest that
it was not possible for him to make a living there. He
can be followed through his children’s births, rather
than through his artistic activities, to Cornwall in
Upper Canada around 1836, Williamstown around 1838, and
finally the Bytown (Ottawa) region. In 1839 he was
residing in Huntley, where his wife’s family had lived
since 1836; his father had also been living near by at
Richmond since 1820. In 1840 Sproule and his wife
received two acres of land in March Township from her
brother, Albert Hopper. Sproule apparently kept a store
at March Corners for a while, and later another one at
Stittsville. In June 1844 he again advertised himself as
a miniaturist and drawing-master, but this time in
Bytown. When he died in November or December of the
following year, he was reported to have been living in
March Township.
Robert Auchmuty Sproule’s name has lived on through his
prints. The views of Montreal (copies of each edition
and five of the original water-colours are held at the
McCord Museum there) are said to make up the most
handsome series published in Canada and to demonstrate
the maturity achieved in pictorial printmaking during
the first half of the 19th century. The other prints
done by Sproule and Bourne were not always of the same
quality as the Montreal and Quebec series, a quality
attained partly through the collaboration of Leney, who
was an excellent engraver, and Hullmandel. Except for
one portrait of himself and another of his wife,
Sproule’s work as a miniaturist remains little known.
BOURNE, ADOLPHUS, engraver,
lithographer, publisher of Canadian views, and merchant;
b. April 1795 in Staffordshire, England;
married and had ten children; d. 14 July 1886 in
Montreal, Que.

Adolphus Bourne was born into a family which had connections with the
pottery trade. Trained in England as an engraver, he
first appears in Montreal directories in 1820, the year
in which he started business modestly by engraving the
lettering for the title-page of a book of verse. Three
years later he engraved a map of the city but little
else is known of his work during the 1820s. In 1830
Bourne printed and published six Montreal scenes,
engraved by William Satchwell Leney after water-colours
by Robert Auchmuty Sproule, which comprised the first
set of single-sheet engravings of a Canadian city to be
printed in Canada. He travelled to London, England, two
years later to have four views of Quebec City and
portraits of Denis-Benjamin Viger and
Louis-Joseph Papineau lithographed by the famous firm of
Charles Joseph Hullmandel. Returning a few months later
with a lithographic press, Bourne advertised as
“A. Bourne’s London Branch Lithographic Establishment,”
at the same time noting that he would also continue with
copperplate engraving and printing.
Over the next 18
years he printed more than 20 Canadian views, a
significant proportion of the pictorial material printed
in Canada before 1850. From about 1845 to 1865 Bourne
also carried on a modest china, glass, and earthenware
importing business, wholesale and retail, until it was
declared insolvent in 1865; a fire on his property was
one of the causes of his losses. Credit reports of this
business describe him as of good character, but “rather
crotchety in bus[iness] Matters,” his wife being the
better business “man” of the two. Although no longer
listing himself as a printer in his later years, he
reissued the early Montreal and Quebec sets of views as
chromolithographs in 1871 and 1874, and in 1878
published a view of Montreal by James D. Duncan.
The quality of Bourne’s prints varies, from accomplished professional
works to expressive but naïve productions, corresponding
to the ability of the artists, engravers, and
lithographers with whom he collaborated. His own work,
especially as a lithographer, does not achieve the
highest standard within the whole range of his
publications, but he is important for his effort to
establish a pictorial printing trade in Montreal.
Reference:
Toronto Public Librairy
View of the Esplanade and Fortifications of Quebec – 1832
Crehen, Charles G., American, fl. 1841-1891, after
Picture, 1874, English
Notes
Acc. D 5-13b is a photograph, c.1910? of a variant impression "SUPPLEMENT
TO THE STANDARD NEWSPAPER, MONTREAL".
Acc. JRR 2005 is an impression of the Walton print after Sproule, 1832.
Inscribed in pen and greyish red ink, mount l.l.: 57
Letterpress, mount l.l.: R.A. SPROULE, DEL.; mount l.r.: C.G. CREHEN,
CHROMO.; mount b.: View of the Esplanade and
Fortifications of Quebec―1832. / PUBLISHED BY ADOLPHUS
BOURNE, MONTREAL, CANADA, 1874.
One of a set of five Quebec prints published by Bourne in 1874 (Accs. JRR
2837, 2842-3, 2849-50).
Spendlove p. 64; Jefferys 231; Reps 3825
Publisher
Bourne, Adolphus, 1795-1886
Rights and Licenses
Public Domain
Medium
Colour lithograph on wove paper mounted on card mount
Extent
Sheet (trimmed within comp.) 266 x 381; mount 354 x 469 mm
Provenance
Gift of J. Ross Robertson
Contributor
Sproule, Robert Auchmuty, Canadian, 1799-1845
Branch
Toronto Reference Library
Location
Baldwin Collection
Call Number / Accession Number
JRR 2842 Cab IV (Sproule)
|