Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2Grego, Joseph
History
Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2
Grego, Joseph
English wit and humor, Pictorial; Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827
The Bishop, a snug ecclesiastic, a remnant possibly of the bad old
school of the Clarke preferments, all wig, lawn sleeves, mitre, and
crozier, is raising his fat hands with sanctimonious import--'I pray
for all.' As to the soldier, the military officer drawn by Rowlandson
rather reminds one of Colonel Wardle, whose person the caricaturist had
made a little too familiar--'I fight for all;' and lastly comes John
Bull, under his agricultural aspect, a simple farmer, with his smock,
hay-fork, and dog, and, what is more to the purpose, his bag of 'hard
earnings' in his hand, on the strength of which he is admitted to join
the quartette--on sufferance, it is palpable--'I pay for all!'[22]
1810 (?). _The Rabbit Merchant._ Published by T. Tegg (25).--The view
of a country street; a rabbit seller, with a selection of his stock
on his pole, is offering a choice to an old dame, who is somewhat
hypercritical, and is employing a test which the rabbit merchant
considers excessive and uncalled for; he is represented as offering
'the retort courteous' in justification of his goods.
1810 (?). _A Sale of English Beauties in the East Indies._--Although,
as we have noticed, Rowlandson's work was stamped by the strongest
originality, he, like other etchers of caricatures, often executed
the ideas or worked out the first impressions of less experienced
draughtsmen; however, unlike most engravers, he has left, in his
numerous plates after Wigstead, Woodward, Bunbury, Nixon, Newton,
&c. (in all cases the name of the originator is given), but slight
traces of the defects and shortcomings of the amateur artists whose
sketches he has put into circulation, the major part of the engravings
bearing unmistakable and easily recognised evidence of Rowlandson's
individuality. In the case of the present caricature he has, in some
degree, departed from this practice, probably at the desire of the
publisher of the print, and has gone to Gillray's large and spirited
plate entitled _A Sale of English Beauties in the East Indies_ for
the materials of his version of the same subject. It is noticeable,
however, that while he has, in a free-handed manner, preserved the
chief points and indeed most of the figures of the original (published
March 16, 1786), he has forborne to put his own name to the copy.
It is probable that the original version was, at the date of the
smaller copy, in demand and difficult to purchase, and, to satisfy the
requirements of both publishers and public, Rowlandson has etched this
second edition of his friend's plate, Gillray having unhappily lost his
reason at the date of the republication.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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