Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego

28. A Visit to the Synagogue.

1819 words | Chapter 595

May 26. This is the House in Gloucester Place. Plate 1. Do. do. do. " 2. (The York and Clarke Scandal. See 'The Delicate Investigation,' vol. ii. pp. 135-162.) July 18. An Old Catch newly revived. 'York and Clarke Scandal.' (See 'The Delicate Investigation,' vol. ii. pp. 135-162.) APPENDIX APPENDIX. ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF REFERENCE UPON ROWLANDSON'S CARICATURES. CATALOGUE OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Further information is open to enquirers who are interested in tracing the works of the caricaturist. The important catalogue of the satirical prints and drawings in the British Museum, now in course of publication, will include all the examples found in that institution, if the Trustees decide to continue it beyond the limit originally settled (about 1770). The preparation of the catalogue in question, which has been placed in the hands of probably the very ablest authority on the subject of satire who has ever lived, is of necessity a work of time. The elucidation of the earlier graphic satires has occupied years of patient industry, by which alone the social and political pictorial 'skits' could be made intelligible--an undertaking which the lapse of time annually makes more complicated as regards the interpretation of those lighter trifles of bygone times, which, in spite of their triviality, often possess an historical value, unintelligible to the majority of students, because hidden away in the obscurity of allusions beyond the vision of the present generation. The task of tracing and explaining the intentions of the graphic satirists, commenced by Mr. Edward Hawkins, original owner of an immense collection of their works, is being continued and successfully carried out for the Trustees of the British Museum by Mr. Frederic George Stephens. The catalogue, an important contribution to the history of the subject, has, as we have said, already been years in hand, and is slowly but surely advancing through the comparatively lost paths of the past. A new light has been thrown upon the satires of the times of the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the accession of the Prince of Orange and of the House of Hanover. The results of the editor's painstaking researches are completed and open for consultation up to the conclusion of the Hogarth period; the notices upon the works of the great luminary of the school, which are included in the volume published in the present year, will be found of so thoroughly exhaustive a character, that the interest generally felt in Hogarth is likely to be increased, especially as a considerable amount of entirely new and curious matter has been discovered by Mr. Stephens in the course of his investigations. CATALOGUE OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Div. 1. Political and Personal Satires. Prepared for publication by Frederic George Stephens, and containing many descriptions by Edward Hawkins, late Keeper of the Antiquities, F.S.A. Printed by order of the Trustees. With an introduction by George William Reid, Esq., Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. * * * * * A selection of subjects, treated by Rowlandson with more freedom than is consonant with the taste of the latter half of the nineteenth century, is also given by PISANUS FRAXI, in his elaborate and exhaustive work CENTURIA LIBRORUM ABSCONDITORUM (1879). Pisanus Fraxi has set down (pp. 346-398) descriptions of over one hundred and twenty subjects of more or less erotic tendency. The major part of the etchings included by this authority are of necessity inadmissible in the present work, owing to their licentious suggestiveness; but a few of the subjects described in the 'Centuria Librorum Absconditorum,' restricted exclusively to social caricatures by Rowlandson, the originals of which maybe consulted in the Print Room and Library of the British Museum, are also instanced in the foregoing pages. * * * * * ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY T. ROWLANDSON IN THE PRINT ROOM OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Blood Royal. Duke of Cumberland, with spyglass, followed by his footman. A back view of the Prince Regent, shown in the distance, talking to some officers. A Drunkard. An inebriated figure has fallen, in a state of partial insensibility, on his back, in a spirit-cellar, leaving the liquor running; a stout and by no means elegant female, of evidently Dutch construction, is trying to bring the toper to consciousness by the use of a birch-broom. The Trout Fisher Rising. Rowing for the Coat and Badge. A Prize Fight. Domestic Tranquillity. Portsmouth Harbour, 1816. Landscape (in Gainsborough's manner). A Market Town in Cornwall. A Continental Scene, 17th century. Lady in coach, running footman before; piazza in distance. Landscape in Cornwall. 'Putting up Horses.' A country scene. Portrait of George Morland, full length, standing before a fireplace in a well-appointed apartment. (About 1787, when Morland was living in considerable style at a handsome new house, the corner of Warren's Place, Hampstead.) The person of the artist is carefully studied, and the items of his dress are most characteristically noted, this being the time of Morland's most marked foppishness. Guildhall Association. Portrait of a Lady. A Beau and his Chronometer. ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON IN THE POSSESSION OF GEORGE WILLIAM REID, ESQ., KEEPER OF THE PRINTS AND DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. View of a Castle. View near Bridgport, Dorsetshire. View in Devonshire. * * * * * WINDSOR CASTLE. THE ROYAL COLLECTION. An English Review. Purchased by George IV. A French Review. Ditto. * * * * * ORIGINAL WORKS BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. (COLLECTION OF WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.) The Parish Vestry, 1784. Bequeathed by William Smith, Esq. Brook Green Fair (about 1800). Bequeathed by William Smith, Esq. The Elephant and Castle Inn, Newington. The gift of G. W. Atkinson, Esq. * * * * * DYCE COLLECTION, SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM. Landscape. 11 × 8. A roadside inn, where three officers have stopped for refreshment; one is seated by his mistress and gives alms to a beggar woman; another, likewise seated, is absorbed by the bottle and wine; the third is standing at the door and using his eyeglass. Signed 'T. Rowlandson, 1784.' Engraved in this work. See _Benevolence_, vol. i. p. 316. View on the Thames off Deptford, with a large number of vessels near the Dockyard. 16 × 10. Men who have been bathing scramble into a boat on the left, very near the holiday parties which are passing to and fro. Hampton Bridge, on the left; boats on the river, two of which are pleasure ones; a stout old fellow is on the left, with his wife on his arm, and a long pipe in his mouth. 16 × 10. Hampton Court Palace. 16 × 10. View of the open space in front, with a carriage and four horses, and its military escort, leaving the gate; a carter with horses on the left, and, on the right, four idle fellows amusing themselves by teaching a dog to 'beg.' Signed 'Rowlandson,' and dated 1820. Landscape. 16 × 10. Timber waggon drawn by eight horses crossing a bridge, which spans a rapid stream struggling between high rocks; cottages are on the left, one by the roadside, and another on the hill. Portsmouth Harbour.[29] 13 × 8. Lord Howe's victory: the French prizes brought into the harbour. The people assembled on the ramparts cheering, a group in front scrambling to get possession of the top of a wall. Signed 'Rowlandson.' Portsmouth Harbour. 17 × 11. A repetition of the last, with numerous additional figures introduced, and more highly finished than the other. Signed 'Rowlandson,' and dated 1780. Exterior of Strawberry Hill. 14 × 9. A gouty old gentleman, his wife and dog, promenade near the walls; another old fellow either enraptured by a glance of the building or making love to two servant-girls who look over the wall. A donkey braying across the fence to the left. Landscape, with a large flock of sheep browsing on downs, and guarded by a young shepherd, whose wife is working at his side; a dog is looking at him. 9 × 5. Bridge at Knaresborough, Yorkshire. 13 × 9. 'The World's End' inn on the left, and the landlord directing persons in a cart, who have probably stopped for refreshments. Signed 'Rowlandson,' and dated, 1807. 'Sir Henry Morshead felling his timber to settle his play debts.' 9 × 5. Three men chop and fell trees, a fourth takes instructions from a soldier on guard; a parson stands near. Signed 'Rowlandson,' and dated 1816. St. Austell, Cornwall. 9 × 5. View, looking up the principal street, the church in the distance; groups of persons in the foreground are scrutinised by a hairdresser who stands at his door. Kew Palace. 16 × 11. Seen across the river; a boatman steadying his boat for three stout persons to enter it; two ladies already apparently occupy all the spare room; other pleasure boats are on the water, some with sails. Landscape. 15 × 11. An approach to a village across a bridge, a woman carrying a bundle; a horseman and other figures are in the foreground. Museum of Ancient Paintings in the Palace of Portici, near Naples. 8 × 5. Three gallants, including two military officers, attend a young lady; her father is behind, accompanied by the custodian. _Vide_ 'Naples and the Campagna Felice,' 1815, _ante_, pp. 301-2. Glastonbury, Somersetshire. 9 × 5. View, up the principal street, with a church in the distance; a carriage, with post-horses at full gallop, frightening a woman riding on a donkey near; women gossiping while getting water at the conduit. The subject etched by the artist as plate 24 of 'Rowlandson's World in Miniature,' No. 2, 1816. 'Betting Post.' 8 × 5. View on a racecourse. A crowd of ruffians on horseback surround a man who is about to read a list of the names of the favourite horses, but is interrupted by the impatience of his companions, whom he endeavours to prevent riding over him; a gouty old fellow, also on horseback, carries his crutches with him. Engraved in this work. See description, vol. i. p. 257. ILLUSTRATIONS TO 'THE TOUR OF DR. SYNTAX IN SEARCH OF THE PICTURESQUE.'[30] Dr. Syntax pursued by a bull. 7 × 4. Syntax, still trembling with affright, Clung to the tree with all his might. Vol. i. p. 40. Dr. Syntax drawing from Nature. 7 × 4. The Doctor now, with genius big, First drew a cow, and then a pig. Vol. i. p. 121. Dr. Syntax at a card party. 8 × 4. The comely pair by whom he sat, A lady cheerful in her chat.--Vol. iii. p. 163. The remainder of the series appear to have been designed for the work, but not etched nor used as suggestions to Mr. Combe, excepting those noted. It may not be generally known at the present time that the Tours were written to elucidate the designs, which the following

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