Robert Prowse biography

Robert Prowse Jr (1858 - ?1934; Clerkenwell, London)

Robert Prowse Jr. illustrated many covers for detective novels, boys' monthlies, book illustrations, etc.

He married Josephine Veillard in Wandsworth in 1878 and had thirteen children: Josephine (1880), Beatrice (1881), Robert (1883), Jessie J. (1884), Kate E. (1887), Richard M. (1889), Charles G. (1891), Tom (1894), Rene (1896), Albert E. (1898), Mildred A. (1899), Dorothy M. (1901) and Marjorie Adelaide (1903).

His earliest known work appeared under the byline R. Prowse Junr. In 1877 when he provided illustrations for The Vacant Throne! by Oswald Allan (London, E. Head, 1877) and Everybody's Christmas Annual whilst still in his late teens. He provided covers for a number of E. Harcourt Burrage's novels when they were published in the “Best for Boys” series in 1892-93.

It was around 1893 that Robert Prowse junior began his association with the Aldine Publishing Co., producing illustrations for their partwork publications of Burrage's The Lambs of Littlecote and The Island School amongst many other contributions. His illustrations appeared in Aldine's Garfield Boys' Journal (1894-95) and Aldine Cheerful Library (1894-95), and he worked for most of Aldine's library titles, becoming their main cover artist from the mid-1890s.

His work can be found on Boys' First-Rate Pocket Library, Aldine Detective Tales, and Aldine Romance of Invention, Travel and Adventure Library in the 1890s. Probably his most famous covers were for the Aldine Robin Hood Library, and he continued to provide cover art for years to come, his last known work appearing on the Aldine Invention Library (1913) and Aldine Cinema Novels (1915).

Robert Prowse Jr. was living in Tottenham, Middlesex, in 1901 with his wife Josephine (born in Paris) and two children, Josephine and Beatrice, both born in Battersea. I'm still not sure when Robert Prowse Jr. died but my best suspect died in Romford, Essex, in 1934 aged 76. Unfortunately, there's no way of confirming this without a copy of the death certificate.

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Robert Prowse's father, also called Robert Prowse (born in Liverpool, 1826 - 1886), was a prolific illustrator of penny dreadfuls and rated amongst the best of the woodcut artists working in the field. His illustrations accompanied some of the most famous of the ‘dreadfuls', including many of Edward Harrison's publications (The Blue Dwarf, Black Bess, Blueskin, etc.), Charley Wag, Fanny White and many of the novels from the Emmett family.

Prowse Sr. was married to Jane Anne Smith in Clerkenwell in 1858 and had seven children: Robert Jr (1858), Jessy Jane (1860), Arthur (1862), Jane Adelaide (1864), Maud Elizabeth (1873), Grace Ethel (1876) and Frederick Ernest (1879). Jane Prowse was ten years his junior, and during his early artistic career the family lived in Clerkenwell, London EC, where four of their children were born (the last registered in Islington). The Prowses later moved to Battersea where a further three children were born. In the 1881 census the family was living at 80 Freke Road, Battersea, Surrey. The senior Robert Prowse died in 1886.
Source: Steve Holland; Illustration Art Gallery

See ROBERT PROWSE ART.