Thomas Rowlandson (1756 - 1827)

Thomas Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, London, in July 1756, the son of a city merchant. Studying art in both Paris and London, Rowlandson began his career as a portrait painter. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and won a silver medal in 1777 for a drawing of Delilah visiting Samson in Prison. Said to be extremely talented and showing much promise as a student, Rowlandson had all the makings of a successful career as a painter ahead of him. Were it not for the death of his aunt in 1789, soon after he had finished his studies, he may well have continued with this. However, he was left in her will 7000 Francs - a princely sum at that time - which ironically led to his financial ruin. He became a compulsive gambler, known for his 36 hour long stints at the card table. It was after one such incident and significant loss that Rowlandson is said to have exclaimed; "I've played the fool, but (holding up his pencils) here is my resource". By 1793 poverty had taken hold completely and taking example from such friends as Gillray and Bunbury, he took up caricature and satirical art as a means of making a living. His most memorable works are often beautiful burlesques of the life style Rowlandson himself led during his dalliance with gambling.

His drawing of Vauxhall, shown in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1784, had been engraved by Pollard, and the print was a success. Rowlandson was largely employed by Rudolph Ackermann, the art publisher, who in 1809-11 issued in his Poetical Magazine The Schoolmasters Tour a series of plates with illustrative verses by Dr William Coombe. They were the most popular of the artist's works. Again engraved by Rowlandson himself in 1812, and issued under the title of the Tour of Dr Syntax (Dr Syntax was an extremely successful parody of the Rev. William Gilpin) in Search of the Picturesque, they had attained a fifth edition by 1813, and were followed in 1820 by Dr Syntax in Search of Consolation, and in 1821 by the Third Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of a Wife. The same Collaboration of designer, author and publisher appeared in the English Dance of Death, issued in 18 14-16, one of the most admirable of Rowlandson's series, and in the Dance of Life, 1822. Rowlandson also illustrated Smollett, Goldsmith and Sterne, and his designs will be found in The Spirit of the Public Journals (1825), The English Spy (1825), and The Humourist (1831).
Rowlandson also famously produced a series of erotic prints, these were suppressed as they were considered socially inappropriate, of course this has only added to their popularity.

Despite his great illustrated works, Rowlandson's larger, single sheet etchings remain his most famous legacy. Some were both designed and etched by him, others were only designed by him and he also etched some compositions designed by his fellow artists and friends, such as George Woodward and Henry Bunbury. The Manager's Last Kick, or a New Way to Pay old Debts was designed by Rowlandson and etched by an unknown artist. It portrays a manager falling through the stage trap door all the way to Hell. Happily sending him on his way are members of the pit orchestra and selected characters from some of his plays.

Rowlandsons designs were often outlined in reed-pen, and delicately washed with colour. They were then etched by the artist in copper and aquatinted by a professional engraver and finally the impressions were coloured by hand. As a designer he was characterized by the utmost facility and ease of draughtsmanship, and the quality of his art suffered from this haste and over-production. He was a true if not a very refined humorist, dealing less frequently than his fierce contemporary Gillray with politics, but commonly touching, in a rather gentle spirit, the various aspects and incidents of social life. His most artistic work is to be found among the more careful drawings of his earlier period; but even among the exaggerated caricature of his later time we find hints that this master of the humorous might have attained to the beautiful had he so willed.

Thomas Rowlandson died in London, after a prolonged illness, on the 22nd of April 1827.