[Album belonging to Louise Steele, containing 74 student sketches and drawings by her husband]

This album of pen and ink sketches and pencil drawings contains the earliest known works of Louis John Steele, which date from his time training in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts through to the early years of his career following his return to London in 1870. The album includes 74 drawings, alongside 15 separately mounted works that originated in the album.

None of Steele’s student works were known to exist until the album emerged in 2021. The sketches pasted into it are not substantial in size or subject but give a useful insight into his student practice. They include copies of paintings and prints in the Louvre and at Florence, and somewhat surprisingly given his subsequent interest in figure paintings are otherwise dominated by landscapes of unidentified countryside in various media. They show that he was an adept copyist, working in a variety of styles to capture paintings. And that he was also a competent landscapist, with a mastery of tone. Also included are endearing mementoes of his life – there are for example several pictures of his son’s hand, one recorded as only 3 months old.

The album was compiled by the painter’s French wife Louise Steele (née Piatti), herself a miniature painter. Alongside her name, and the date 1868, she inscribed ‘dessins de mon cher Louis’ [drawings by my dear Louis] suggesting a warm relationship between the couple in their early years.

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