Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 1
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Title: Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 1
Author: Joseph Grego
Illustrator: Thomas Rowlandson
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ROWLANDSON THE CARICATURIST
_FIRST VOLUME_
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
[Illustration: Tho^s Rowlandson]
ROWLANDSON THE CARICATURIST
_A SELECTION FROM HIS WORKS_
WITH ANECDOTAL DESCRIPTIONS OF HIS
FAMOUS CARICATURES
AND
A Sketch of his Life, Times, and Contemporaries
BY
JOSEPH GREGO
AUTHOR OF 'JAMES GILLRAY, THE CARICATURIST; HIS LIFE, WORKS, AND TIMES'
[Illustration:
DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE--HON. CHARLES JAMES FOX--LORD NORTH]
_WITH ABOUT FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS_
IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I.
London
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880
[_The right of translation is reserved_]
DEDICATED
TO
ALL LOVERS OF HUMOUR
PREFACE.
'Tuâ nobis est gratiâ.'--CIC.
We have need of your favour.
The Editor recognises that the admirers of Rowlandson's peculiar
graphic productions, and those fortunate amateurs who are able to
indulge their taste for collecting caricatures and works embellished
with humorous illustrations, will not expect any excuse for the
preparation and appearance of the present work: he anticipates that--in
spite of much that he would improve--the two volumes devoted to a
_résumé_ of the great Caricaturist, with the multifarious, ludicrous,
and grotesque creations which emanated from his fertile fancy,
will be accepted as, in some degree, supplying that which, without
being absolutely indispensable, has frequently been instanced as a
compilation likely to be acceptable to the appreciators of graphic and
literal satire.
To the initiated few this sketch of a famous delineator of
whimsicalities, with the review of his works, times, and
contemporaries, is offered with the conviction that the intentions of
the Author are not liable to be misconstrued by them; nor has he any
grounds to dread that the subjects represented run the risk of being
questioned at their hands on the grounds of propriety.
Fuller consideration is due to the many to whom the name of Rowlandson
conveys no more than a perception of 'oddity' or of license of
treatment which approaches vulgarity, to whom the innumerable
inventions of the artist represent foreign ground--a novel, strange
land, populated with daring absurdities, according to their theories.
It is felt that some justification is needed for the writer's temerity
in volunteering as a pioneer to conduct the unsophisticated through
the devious and eccentric intricacies which characterise the progress
of pictorial satire, as demonstrated in the subject of the work now
submitted to the public with all due deference.
The neophyte, it is anticipated, will be somewhat startled at the first
glance of the surroundings amidst which he will wander; but it is
believed that, in the course of his journey through an anomalous past,
he will alight on discoveries, more or less interesting in themselves,
which provide abundant food for the student of humanity.
The writer deprecates a hasty conclusion, with the assurance that those
who have the moderation to reserve their opinions until they have fully
acquainted themselves with the materials, may possibly suffer their
critical instincts to be modified in the process.
We have taken the liberty of scrutinising somewhat closely--with a view
to the portrayal of its salient features--a generation which was marked
with a colouring more intensified than those who live in our time are
prepared to adopt. Of this age, diversified with much which has been
discarded, we accept Rowlandson as the fitting exponent. His works
epitomise a state of being comparatively recent in actual fact, but,
from the circumstances of change, so distantly removed in appearance,
as to constitute a curious experience to the majority.
With every qualification to ensure success, Rowlandson, as his story
indicates, deliberately threw away the serious chances of life, to
settle down as the delineator of the transitory impressions of the
hour. 'There is wisdom in laughter,' says the sage; and--without
precisely regarding life as a 'stale jest'--our artist drew mirth
from every situation, and illustrated from his own fecund resources
that, while nearly every circumstance has its grotesque as well as its
sinister aspect, the ludicrous elements of any given event are often
more enduring than the serious ones.
Good-natured pleasantry, we may remind the reader, is held to be
wholesome. Rowlandson's shafts, so far as our judgment serves, were
never pointed with gall: while he possessed the faculty of seizing the
weak or ridiculous side of his subject, he seems, unlike Gillray, his
best-known contemporary, to have been an utter stranger to acrimonious
instigations. A fuller acquaintanceship reveals the Caricaturist--as he
was described in his day--'an inexhaustible folio of amusement, every
page of which was replete with fun'--perhaps the most genial travelling
companion who could be selected in traversing the ways of life led
by our ancestors, for the half-century which witnessed the gradual
extinction of the quaint, old-fashioned Georgian era, and inaugurated
the less picturesque generation to which our immediate predecessors
belong.
Be it recorded, concerning the part played in the world by the
satirists, pictorial and literal--'the less they deserve, the more
merit in your bounty.' We would modestly suggest the sapient axiom
embodied by the great master, 'Fancy's favourite child,' relative to
the transient jesters whose lot it has been 'to hold, as't were, the
mirror up to nature' upon the mimic stage: 'Let them be well used; for
they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time: after your
death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while
you live.'
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
(1774-1799.)
_BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH._
PAGE
The prevalent taste for pictorial satires--Contributions to the
literature and history of caricature--Collections of caricatures
in national museums--Rowlandson's publishers--Scarcity of his
works and the avidity of collectors--Difficulties in the way of
forming a collection of Rowlandson's engraved plates--Rowlandson
regarded as an artist in water-colours--Examples of his
productions to be found in picture galleries--Establishes
himself as a serious artist, 1777 to 1781--His contributions
to the Royal Academy as a portrait-painter in oils--His
female likenesses--His versatile acquirements and imitative
fidelity--Rowlandson considered as a landscape artist--As a
painter of marine subjects--George Cruikshank's estimation of
Thomas Rowlandson--General review of Rowlandson's caricatures:
Gambling, the Westminster Election, 1784; political struggles
between the Whigs and Tories, Pitt and Fox, the King and the
Prince, fashions, the clergy, the Bar, usures, doctors, quackery,
John Bull, foreigners, cockneys, countrymen, the Universities,
collegians, the military, the navy, seaport sketches, amusements
of the _bon-ton_, Vauxhall, the Opera, theatres, card-playing,
sharpers, drinking, feasting, sport, fox-hunting, horse-racing,
prize-fighting, rural sports, masquerading, picnic revels,
fortune-hunters, elopements, Gretna Green, travesties, parodies,
and burlesques, trials, scandals, housebreaking, highway
robberies, the passions, the Royal Family--Imitations of the old
masters: Female studies, _croquis_ taken in France, Holland,
Belgium, Germany, England and Wales, the metropolis--The Regency
struggle--Admiral Lord Nelson--The miseries of human life--The
Great French Revolution--Napoleon Buonaparte--The Delicate
Investigation--The Royal Academy, &c., &c.--Manifold production
of drawings--Contributions to book illustration--Portraits
of the caricaturist--The artist and his relatives--His
schoolfellows--A student in Paris--At the Academy schools--His
early friends Bannister and Angelo--Tricks on the Royal
Academicians--His friends Pyne and John Thomas Smith--Studies
of Continental character--Between London and Paris--Is left a
fortune--His passion for the gambling-table--The integrity of
his conduct--Successive exhibits at the Royal Academy--Portraits
in oil--His travels at home and abroad; the companions of
his excursions; Mitchell the banker and Henry Wigstead
the magistrate--Congenial spirits--Vauxhall Gardens--Lord
Barrymore--Nocturnal frolics--Play--Successive drawings of social
satires, contributed to the Royal Academy Exhibitions--Rowlandson
robbed--Identifies a thief--Lord Howe's victory--French
prisoners--Sketches of the embarkation of the expedition for
La Vendée--Sojourns in Paris with Angelo, John Raphael Smith,
Westmacott, and Chasemore--Sketching in the Netherlands and
Germany with Mitchell--John Bull on his travels--Night auctions
of pictures, drawings, and prints--Old Parsons, 'Antiquity'
Smith, Edwin, Greenwood, Hutchins, Heywood--Relaxations
of the period--Nights at Mitchell's--Wigstead and 'Peter
Pindar'--Wolcot's stories--Dinners with Weltjé at
Hammersmith--The Prince of Wales--Theatrical worthies, Munden,
Palmer and Madame Banti--Convivialities--The Prince's Maître
d'Hôtel: his cooking and anecdotes--Excursions in England: views
in Cumberland, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Norfolk, Suffolk,
Kent, Hampshire, &c.--Studies in the Universities: views of the
Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge--Malcolm's 'Historical Sketch
of the Art of Caricaturing'--Wright's 'History of Caricature
and Grotesque in Literature and Art'--Rowlandson as an etcher
of the works of amateur caricaturists: his own spirit lent
to the productions of Wigstead, Nixon, Woodward, Bunbury,
Collings, &c.--Sketches of contemporary caricaturists: William
Henry Bunbury, George Moutard Woodward, Henry Wigstead, the
facetious John Nixon--The Beef-steak Club--The 'well-bread
man'--Collings, artist and editor of the 'Public Ledger'--Caleb
Whiteford--'Ephraim Hardcastle'--James Heath--George
Morland--James Gillray--Allusions to Rowlandson in the 'Life of
James Gillray, the Caricaturist, with the Story of his Works
and Times'--The position of caricaturists in relation to their
contemporaries--Henry Angelo, the fencing master--Personal
characteristics of satirists--Rowlandson's publisher, Rudolph
Ackermann: sketch of his life--_Conversazioni_ at the 'Repository
of Arts'--Special qualities of Rowlandson's productions--Esteem
in which he was held by contemporaries--His death and funeral 1
1774-1781.
_EARLY PRODUCTIONS._
A Rotation Office--The Village Doctor--A Scene at
Streatham--Bozzy and Piozzi--Special Pleading--The Power
of Reflection--E O, or the Fashionable Vowels--Gambling
Tables--Charity Covereth a Multitude of Sins--Bob
Derry--Luxury--Political and social caricatures for 1781 96
1782-1783.
Amputation--The Rhedarium--The Discovery--Interior of a
Clockmaker's Shop--The Times--Political and social caricatures
for 1783 107
1784.
_POLITICAL CARICATURES._
The Pit of Acheron--The Fall of Dagon--The Coalition--Fox and
North Ministries--Britannia Roused--The East India Company--The
Apostate Jack Robinson--The Champion of the People--Master
Billy's Procession to Grocers' Hall--The State Auction--The
Westminster Election--The Hanoverian Horse and the British
Lion--The Canvass--The Rival Duchesses--The Rival Candidates:
Hon. Charles James Fox, Lord Hood, Sir Cecil Gray--The
Devonshire, or most Approved Manner of Securing Votes--The
Poll--Fox, the Westminster Watchman--Honest Sam House--Lords of
the Bedchamber--The Court Canvass of Madame Blubber--Wit's Last
Stake, or the Cobbling Voter and Abject Canvassers--Monsieur
Reynard--The Case is Altered--The Hustings--Procession of
the Hustings after a Successful Canvass--Lord Lonsdale--The
Westminster Mendicant--The Westminster Deserter Drumm'd out
of the Regiment--Court Influence--Preceptor and Pupil--Secret
Influences Directing the New Parliament--For the Benefit of the
Champion--The Petitioning Candidate--Christopher Atkinson, a
'Rogue in Grain'--John Stockdale, the 'Bookselling Blacksmith' 111
_SOCIAL CARICATURES._
A Sketch from Nature--English Curiosity--Counsellor and
Client--La Politesse Françoise--1784, or the Fashions of
the Day--The Vicar and Moses--Money-lenders--Bookseller
and Author--The Historian Animating the Mind of a Young
Painter--Billingsgate--Illustrations of Conveyances--Rowlandson's
imitations of modern drawings 145
1785.
The Fall of Achilles--The Golden Apple, or the Modern
Paris--Defeat of the High and Mighty Balissimo Corbettino
and his Famed Cecilian Forces--The Wonderful Pig--The
Waterfall--Comfort in the Gout--VAUXHALL GARDENS: Vauxhall
Characters--Vincent Lunardi: Aërostation Out at Elbows, or
the Itinerant Aëronaut--Too Many for a Jew--An Essay on the
Sublime and Beautiful--The Maiden Speech--Captain Epilogue--Col.
Topham Endeavouring with his Squirt to Extinguish the Genius of
Holman--Persons and Property Protected by Authority--Intrusion on
Study, or the Painter Disturbed--Courtship--Filial Affection, or
a Trip to Gretna Green--The Reconciliation, or the Return from
Scotland--Lord Eden and Gen. Arnold--Harmony--Sympathy--John
Gilpin--Tastes Differ--Nap in the Country--Nap in Town--Sea
Amusement, or Commander-in-Chief of Cup and Ball on a
Cruise--Opera Boxes 152
1786.
Box Lobby Loungers--Love and Learning--Sketch of Politics in
Europe, January 1786--Uncle Toby (the Duke of Richmond)--An
Ordnance Dream, or Planning Fortifications--Luxury--Misery--The
Morning Dram--Count Boruwloski (the Polish Dwarf) Performing
before the Grand Seigneur--Brewers' Drays--Youth and Age--Sailors
Carousing--A Theatrical Chymist--The Return from Sport--A Box
Lobby Hero--Werter--Covent Garden Theatre--Illustrations to the
poems of 'Peter Pindar' (Dr. Wolcot)--'Picturesque Beauties of
Boswell' 180
1787.
Uncle George and Black Dick--Illustration to Peter
Pindar's poems, 'The Lousiad,' 'Peter's Pension,' 'Odes
for the New Year'--The Triumph of Sentiment--The Triumph
of Hypocrisy--Transplanting of Teeth (Baron Ron)--The
Village Forge--A Brewer's Dray--A Posting Inn--A Rural
Halt--Haymakers--A Sailor's Family--A College Scene, or a
Fruitless Attempt on the Purse of Old Squaretoes--Tragedy
Spectators--Comedy Spectators--Love in the East--The Art of
Scaling--Modish--Prudent--Cribbage Players 199
1788.
Hunting Series--The Meet--The Humours of St. Giles's--Warren
Hastings--Ague and Fever--Lord Hood--The School for Scandal--The
King's Illness--Filial Piety--The Prospect before us--The Regency
Struggle--The Restrictions--The Addresses--The Word-Eater--Blue
and Buff Loyalty--Housebreakers--Love and Dust--Luxury and
Desire--Lust and Avarice--Stage Coach and Basket--An Epicure--A
Comfortable Nap in a Post-chaise--A Fencing Match--The
Pea-Cart--A Print Sale 223
1789.
The Regency Restrictions--The Modern Egbert, or the King
of Kings--The Pittfall--The Propagation of a Truth--Loose
Principles--State Butchers--A New Speaker--Britannia's
Support, or the Conspirators Defeated--Going in State to the
House of Peers--A Sweating for Opposition--Irish Ambassadors
Extraordinary--Address from the Parliament of Ireland to the
Prince of Wales--The Prince's Answer--The King's Recovery--Irish
Ambassador's Return--Rochester Address--Grand Procession to
St. Paul's on St. George's Day, 1798--Sergeant Kite (Duke of
Orleans) Recruiting at Billingsgate--Grog on Board--Tea on
Shore--Interruption, or Inconvenience of a Lodging House--A
Sufferer for Decency--The Start--The Betting Post--The
Course--The Mount--Bay of Biscay--Chelsea Reach--La Place des
Victoires, Paris--A Dull Husband 242
1790.
Tythe Pig--A Roadside Inn--Frog-Hunting--A Butcher--Repeal of
the Test Act--A French Family--Kick-up at a Hazard Table--Who
Tells First for a Crown--Philip Thicknesse--'An Excursion to
Brighthelmstone, made in the year 1789'--Saloon at the Pavilion,
Brighton--Waiting for Dinner--At Dinner--After Dinner--Preparing
for Supper--Four o'clock in Town--Four o'clock in the
Country--Fox-Hunters Relaxing--John Nichols--Miniature groups and
scenes 268
1791.
The Pantheon--The Prospect before us, Nos. 1 and 2--Chaos is
Come Again--Sheets of picturesque etchings--The Attack--Bardolph
Badgered--An Imperial Stride--The Grand Battle between the
Famous English Cock and the Russian Hen--A Little Tighter--A
Little Bigger--Damp Sheets--English Barracks--French
Barracks--Slugs in a Sawpit--The Prince's jockey, Chiffney--How
to _Escape_ Winning--How to _Escape_ Losing--Angelo's Fencing
Rooms--Notorious Fencers--The Inn-yard on Fire--A Squall in
Hyde Park--Illustrations to Fielding's 'Tom Jones'--Smollett's
'Adventures of Peregrine Pickle'--'Délices de la Grande Bretagne' 283
1792.
St. James's and St. Giles's--Work for Doctors' Commons--Six
Stages of Marring a Face--Six Stages of Mending a Face--Ruins
of the Pantheon--Hogarthian Novelist: 'Adventures of Roderick
Random'--Philosophy Run Mad--On her Last Legs--Studious
Gluttons--Cold Broth and Calamity--An Italian Family--The
Hypochondriac--Benevolence--The Contrast: which is Best? British
Liberty, or French Liberty? 306
1793.
Reform Advised: Reform Begun: Reform Complete--New
Shoes--Illustrations to Smollett's novels--Illustrations to a
'Narrative of the War'--Illustrations to Fielding's novels 319
1794.
The Grandpapa--The Foreigner Stared out of
Countenance--Traffic--The Invasion Scare: Village Cavalry
Practising in a Farmyard--A Visit to the Uncle--A Visit to the
Aunt--Bad News upon the Stock Exchange 321
1795.
Harmony: Effects of Harmony: Discord--A Master of the Ceremonies
Introducing a Partner 326
1796.
Sir Alan Gardiner--Portraits--An Impartial Narrative of the War 327
1797.
Theatrical Candidate--Views in the Netherlands--'Tiens bien ton
Bonnet, et toi, defends ta Queue'--Cupid's Magic Lanthorn 330
1798.
The Hunt Dinner--Illustrations to the 'Comforts of Bath,' in
twelve plates--'The New Bath Guide, or Memoirs of the Blunderhead
Family; in a series of poetical epistles,' by Christopher
Anstey--Views of London--The Invasion Panic: Volunteers and
Recruiting--The Hungarian and Highland Broadsword Exercise--The
Glorious Victory obtained over the French Fleet off the Nile,
August 1, 1798, by the gallant Admiral Lord Nelson of the
Nile--High Fun for John Bull, or the Republicans put to their
Last Shift--The Discovery--'Annals of Horsemanship'--The Academy
for Grown Horsemen--'Love in Caricature' 333
1799.
Cries of London--A Charm for a Democracy--An Artist Travelling
in Wales--Nautical Characters--An Irish howl--Etchings
after the old masters--St. Giles's Courtship--St. James's
Courtship--Connoisseurs--Horse Accomplishments--Comforts of
the City--Procession of a Country Corporation--Forget and
Forgive--A Note of Hand--Legerdemain--A Bankrupt Cart, or the
Road to Ruin in the East--Subjects engraved after designs
by Bunbury--Distress--Hungarian and Highland Broadsword
Exercise--Loyal Volunteers of London and the Environs 354
_ROWLANDSON THE CARICATURIST._
Buyers and readers of books, all admirers of pictures, drawings, and
engravings--in a word, the intelligent, and, let us hope, larger
proportion of the community--are well aware, if they are inclined
to search for information in respect to the celebrities of art, or
would inquire into the personal careers of the renowned pioneers and
practitioners of the serious branches of the profession, of whatever
period, school, or nationality, that numerous sources of reference,
tolerably easy of access, are open to the seeker without being driven
far abroad in his quest.
[Illustration]
There exist, as we are all thoroughly aware, abundant lives of artists,
dictionaries of painters, and other prolific sources of information
upon the practisers of the sober walks of pictorial art, with rich
collections of engravings from their works, in fact, a complete library
of delightful literature, which goes far towards proving that the
world at least acknowledges a slight interest in individuals as well
as works, and that people care to learn some particulars of the men
who spent their industrious existences, and devoted the gifts of their
admitted genius and application to the humanising walks of life, and to
the fitting illustration of the world's universal passions and history,
or to the delineation of the ever-varying beauties of nature under
picturesque aspects.
Wealthy collectors, the cultivated patrons of material refinement,
frequenters of picture galleries, those who love pictures by instinct,
art amateurs, and the hopeful and fervent student, have alike a
provision prepared for them in this regard, which happily leaves little
to be desired. The memoirs of artists--men whose domestic and inner
lives in so many instances teach lessons of gentleness, simplicity,
and singleness of purpose, of perseverance under difficulties; making
manifest to a world which is often slow to give them credit for the
gifts that are in them, the strong impulses of talent under untoward
conditions--are, for the most part, tender memorials, labours of love,
cherished productions of biographers, whose own natural qualifications
and trained appreciation of the subtler attractions of art have brought
them into more intimate communion with the memorable subjects of their
studies.
It has ever been a source of regret to the writer, since his youthful
fancies were first won by the marvels of grotesque art, and the
pleasant creations of the graphic humourists, that while the names of
the designers, familiarly known as _caricaturists_--who have enriched
the more playful branches of the profession--are household words, no
fitting memorials are to be found of the careers of these draughtsmen
of true genius; they knew their generation, as is instanced in the
inexhaustible memorials they have bequeathed their descendants in
their works, and while they were themselves thoroughly familiar with
the varied aspects and workings of the social life with which they
were surrounded, their generation knew them not, and took no care to
preserve any record of the capricious wits whose pleasant inventions
had often afforded them enjoyment. The humourists, who did so much
to contribute towards the amusement of others, have been suffered to
pass away, in too many cases, as impersonalities. The works of their
fanciful and fertile imaginations have been accepted on all hands
and allotted their recognised position among the other agreeable
accessories of life, while the gifted professors have, with one or
two notable exceptions, which make the reverse the more marked, been
pretty generally passed over, if they are thought of at all under
the relationship of realistic characters, as mythical beings, less
tangible--as regards their connection with the living people of their
generations, of whose persons, habits, and follies they have bequeathed
animated instances to posterity--than the most weird and fantastic
creations of their own pencils or etching-points, emanations of the
mind, whose utmost substance amounts to paper, and printing-ink, and
ideas.
[Illustration]
The whimsical conceptions which owe their origin to Gillray,
Rowlandson, Bunbury, Ramberg, Woodward, Dighton, Nixon, Newton, Boyne,
Collings, Kingsbury, Isaac Cruikshank, his son, 'the glorious George,'
the veteran calcographist, who has just passed away full of years and
reputation, Lane, Heath, Seymour, and a bevy of their contemporaries,
were in their day tolerably familiar, their etchings and sketches
were in the hands of the print-buying public of the period, and they
enjoy, as far as these relics of the past are concerned, a posthumous
reputation which varies according to the merits of their productions,
a generation or two having assigned them their just relative positions
on the ladder of fame; all the inimitable amusing travesties which
reproduce the manners, and even the sentiments of past celebrities
and perished generations, owe their creation to artists who were
suffered to labour in partial obscurity; while the creatures of their
brains were in the hands of every one, their contemporaries, for the
most part, did not trouble themselves sufficiently to reflect whether
the designers had any real existence, possibly classing the actual,
practical, living, and working men under the category of abstract ideas
in their own minds, impalpable atomies, less substantial than their
tangible satirical pictures, which enjoyed a popular circulation.
The late Thomas Wright, F.S.A. (with the collaboration of an earnest
worker in the same field, the late F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A., who
contributed the valuable aid of his pencil), has done a great deal for
the subject in his 'History of the Grotesque in Literature and Art,'
and still more in his 'Caricature History of the Three Georges.' 'The
Caricature History of the Fourth George,' which offers a still wider
field of selection, as regards political and pictorial squibs and
satires, has yet to appear.
[Illustration]
A preliminary contribution to the history of caricature, as an attempt
to repair in some measure the oversight of indifferent contemporaries,
'The Works of James Gillray the Caricaturist, with the Story of his
Life and Times,' published under the auspices of Messrs. Chatto and
Windus, has already met with a favourable reception at the hands of the
press and the public; the present writer devoted several years to the
completion of the volume, with the solitary end in view of associating
the artist more intimately with his works, in the estimation of the
public, before it was too late. Mr. Thomas Wright, as an indefatigable
pioneer in a comparatively unbeaten track, deserved personal
recognition on the strength of his important contributions, bearing on
the political history of the House of Hanover, as duly set forth in the
present writer's introduction, and to his name was offered such repute
as was conferred by the editorship.
The writer, from his gleanings in the same direction, has been able
to offer the public a sketch of the 'Life of Henry Bunbury the
Caricaturist,' with slighter _croquis_ of his contemporaries. During
the interval since the first intention of compiling the present
volume as a further contribution to the literature of caricature
assumed a definite form, some ten years back, the preparation of
the work, imperfect and incomplete as it confessedly must remain--a
mere _ébauche_ at best--has been proceeding by slow and toilsome
stages, the self-imposed task being rendered a more difficult one
than in the instance of James Gillray,[1] from the disheartening
circumstance that it is utterly impossible to arrive at anything
approaching a comprehensive view of the works of Rowlandson; no
adequate collection being in existence, as far as the writer has
discovered, with the possible exception of an accumulation in the
hands of Mr. Harvey of St. James's Street, the advantages of which
gathering (it has been going on steadily for years) have hitherto
remained inaccessible to the editor, the possessor's time having been
too occupied by the requirements of his other engagements to permit
him to arrange the prints as he wishes. This circumstance is to be
regretted, since Mr. Harvey admits the personal interest he feels in
caricature, upon which, when communicatively inclined, he is able to
furnish very valuable information, in part the results of his own wide
experience as a purchaser, and still more, perhaps, of painstaking
investigations conducted for his private delectation; as his position
and opportunities enable him to gratify his tastes in this direction
to the fullest extent, it is hinted that on occasions he may feel
disposed to furnish the critic with certain valuable facts of a special
nature, drawn from the results of his own practical investigations in
directions not generally available. This gentleman is, undoubtedly,
an authority, and as, it is believed, he possesses unrivalled
opportunities for forming a unique collection of prints by any master
whose works he may fancy, the writer has, from season to season for
the past six years, deferred the completion of his volume on the faith
of a generous-sounding promise that he should be allowed to consult
Mr. Harvey's collection of prints by Rowlandson, which, according to
his knowledge, must be both interesting and valuable, and may possibly
contain a great deal that has escaped his previous researches, however
zealously they may have been instituted.
[Illustration]
The sacrifice of time, labour, and patience involved in attempting
to compile anything approaching a fairly compendious summary of
Rowlandson's etchings is simply incredible. The desire to furnish a
complete catalogue, though seemingly reasonable in itself at the first
glance, is discovered upon experience to be practically impossible, and
hence out of the question as regards arrangement; the productions of
the artist, multiplied by pen, graver, and etching-point, as supplied
by the hand of the master, or reproduced by other engravers, are
legion, and where the examples are scattered no amount of application
can adequately ascertain.
As far as kindly assistance is concerned, the writer has to
acknowledge, with sincere gratitude, that where his previous experience
has taught him to anticipate courtesies, he has been gratified in the
highest degree, and he is proud to record that he once more finds
himself indebted for cordial sympathy to the best qualified experts of
the day.
[Illustration]
Mr. G. W. Reid,[2] the respected keeper of the prints and drawings
in the British Museum, with Messrs. Fagan and Donaghue, urbane
members of his staff, have at all times made his access easy to
the invaluable collection of social and political caricatures in
his department; Mr. George Bullen (whose affability and scholarly
acquirements are proverbial), the respected keeper of the printed
books in the same magnificent national institution, has been able to
facilitate the writer's quest of illustrations and caricatures by
Rowlandson, so far as they come within the scope of the important
department which that gentleman so efficiently administers; the
obliging and accomplished custodian of the superb collection belonging
to the _Bibliothèque Nationale_ of France has most readily allowed
the writer to avail himself of the select and valuable gathering of
caricatures by Rowlandson, which are to be found under his charge.
It must be mentioned that the caricature resources of the royal
collection in the museum at Brussels were as courteously placed at his
service by the well-informed custodian, who, it may be added, takes
a considerable individual interest in this branch as illustrative of
men and manners under special aspects. The writer has pursued his
perquisitions as far as the national state collection of engravings
contained in the Trippenhuizen Museum, Amsterdam. These magnificent
national institutions are all, more or less, rich in caricatures of
an historical description, but unfortunately, as regards the success
of the present undertaking, the works of Rowlandson, numerous as
they are, happen to be the reverse of the strong features of their
collections of satirical prints, either political or social. The writer
has accordingly been thrown back, to a dispiriting extent, on his own
necessarily restricted resources; and the numerous illustrations which
accompany this volume are for the most part unavoidably drawn from his
own folios.
The principal source from whence it was hoped the best information
could be detached proved utterly and exceptionally valueless; the
writer refers to the important publishing establishments (and the
successors who carry on the firms at the present day), whence the
far-famed caricatures were originally issued. The firms of the
Humphries, Hollands, Jackson, J. R. Smith, and others under whose
auspices the artist's earliest, and in several instances most finished
and ambitious works, first secured their lasting reputation, have long
become extinct, as far as the editor is informed. But three leading
print-publishing houses, established by Rowlandson's principal patrons,
to whom the publication of the major part of his works was due, are
still flourishing, under conditions modified to harmonise with the
requirements of the present age, by descendants and successors of
the well-known founders. These resources have proved, however, a
disappointing failure, as far as assistance towards the compilation of
a catalogue of the artist's productions is concerned. To Mr. Rudolph
Ackermann, the respected inaugurator of the 'Repository of Arts,' a
truly liberal and enterprising gentleman, who will be referred to at
greater length in the course of this volume, Rowlandson (with many
other professional artists and authors) was deeply indebted both for
business-like co-operation, for the pains he took to sell the artist's
countless original drawings, for personal encouragement, untiring
friendship, and pecuniary accommodation. Messrs. Ackermann have
unfortunately preserved no account of the numerous publications due to
the hand of the caricaturist, and issued for half-a-century by their
respected firm, nor have they any collection of impressions from the
plates they gave to the public.
[Illustration]
The same observation applies to Mr. William Tegg, whose father, the
indefatigable and well-known Thomas Tegg of Cheapside, published
hundreds of the satirist's later and cruder caricatures, which were
more generally familiar in the windows of printsellers, &c., since
copies were multiplied to a larger extent than was practicable in the
case of delicately finished aquatints, which gave fewer impressions,
and commanded higher prices. Consequently, Rowlandson is better known
to the public by his least desirable prints, and under his most
common-place aspect. Mr. S. W. Fores seems to have issued an important
proportion of Rowlandson's larger and more valuable plates, with the
addition of an immense number of small subjects etched by Rowlandson,
and finished by clever aquatinters, published in a more costly form
than was generally the custom of the time. The successors of this
gentleman have mentioned that the firm has not preserved any list
of the publications issued under its original and well-recognised
standing, in respect to satirical production, as _Fores' Caricature
Museum_, but it is understood that, at the present writing, there
still remains in the house a collection, in huge volumes, of early
impressions from the multitudinous plates issued from the establishment
under its earlier auspices--a publisher's summary, in short, such as,
it is to be regretted, is rarely preserved for any length of time.
Unfortunately, owing to the exigencies of their modern print business,
the writer has not been permitted to consult this highly interesting
collection; he has, however, been informed, as an equivocal sort of
consolation for his discomfiture, by the member of the firm to whom his
application was addressed, that the major part of the prints, as far as
the works of Rowlandson are concerned, are of a political character,
and that the interesting and valuable social engravings are wanting; he
also learns that nothing of importance by Rowlandson is to be found in
this collection.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
It is worthy of note, that the majority of the caricatures described in
the present work, as published by S. W. Fores, belong almost entirely
to the more attractive order of social satires, and pictorial skits
at home and abroad, or cartoons levelled at the leaders of fashion,
holding up the prevalent follies of the hour to legitimate ridicule.
The writer confesses that he is inclined to feel a deeper regret
at his inability to describe these political prints, presuming his
informant, who certainly ought to know, is correct in this conclusion,
since he is unable to account for their existence, as amongst the
immense number of caricatures published by S. W. Fores, he has not
hitherto lighted upon the series in question. Rowlandson's political
prints--which, as the reader will realise in the progress of this
compilation, are numerous enough in all conscience--were mostly
published, as regards the early examples, by Humphries (a few of the
somewhat hackneyed Westminster Election set, 1784, were due to S. W.
Fores, it is acknowledged); while his later productions in this field,
such as the succession of plates attacking Buonaparte, were issued from
Ackermann's Repository of Arts, or circulated by Thomas Tegg (like the
series treating of that _Delicate Investigation_, the Clarke scandal),
according to the circumstances of the artist's employment or the cost
of the plates. Popular prices being a requisition in the case of the
sets published from the City, a coarser method of execution, with
unmistakable instances of haste, detract in an unqualified degree from
the interest of these prints, as instances of the artist's ability,
which is exhibited to greater advantage in productions where his skill
was allowed a more liberal exercise, as is evidenced in the capitally
executed plates published by the West End print-selling firms.
The hopeful chances of aid from fountain-heads, upon experience,
diminished to zero; and, while obstacles multiplied, the writer
found it necessary to redouble his energy. As it proved that his own
collection must, in the end, serve as the main source of reliance,
fresh efforts were made to increase his gathering, and valuable
additions were gradually secured. The process was somewhat tedious
and costly withal, but it was the only course left open, unless the
intention was renounced after the work had been advertised in progress.
Print-sellers' shops, at home and abroad, were ransacked, and auctions
of engravings were attended, whenever the alluring word _caricatures_
occurred in the catalogue. The supply was remarkably limited, the
demand considerable and increasing; and prices, from the nature of the
request, shortly became unreasonable. Choice caricatures, or those
in fairly good condition, were pushed up to nearly the prices of the
original drawings, and even at these enhanced rates but few examples
were forthcoming. In Paris, Brussels, and London, a five-pound note
became about a fair equivalent for a moderately fine impression after
Rowlandson, if the plate were large and the subject important or
curious, while for certain of the more sought-after examples, this rate
was doubled; for such plates as _Vauxhall Gardens_, dealers expect a
still larger price--indeed, five-and-twenty pounds have been demanded
in many instances. The chances of fresh examples by Rowlandson coming
into the market have decreased, and possibly the competition will relax
when there is no longer a chance of exciting it.
[Illustration]
The writer has necessarily made the acquaintance of several gentlemen
who are fervent collectors of Rowlandson's works, and he by no means
ignores his obligations to those happy possessors of rarer specimens,
who have frequently carried them off with an air of conquest from
discomfited rival amateurs, the condition of their purses, and the
artistic enthusiasm aroused at the moment, rendering similar triumphs
comparatively facile, when incidental questions as to actual worth are
too insignificant to engage the attention.
Certain collectors of eminence, who are discriminating selectors of
caricatures, well qualified to judge of their technical merits, and
who, further, are well posted up in curious and out-of-the-way points
of the political and social histories of the times thus illustrated,
have volunteered the results of their researches; these good-natured
offers have arrived too late to be available, but the writer is not the
less indebted to the kindness which prompted the action; in an earlier
and preparatory stage, these advances would have been of considerable
value and assistance.
[Illustration]
So much for the materials; perhaps too much stress has been laid,
as far as the reader's patience is concerned, on the preliminary
difficulties which have hindered and weakened the execution of the
writer's desire to reproduce, by pencil and pen, a fair gathering of
the works of our greatest humorous designers, an idea long cherished,
and tardily carried out, as regards the first part of his task,
_James Gillray_; and beset, as he has recounted, in respect to THOMAS
ROWLANDSON, the concluding portion, by unforeseen impediments and
technical difficulties which it would be tedious to enumerate; they
may, however, in a minor degree, be taken into consideration as a
plea for the obvious shortcomings of this laborious compilation, and,
while inclining rigid specialists to be less exacting, induce critics
to regard the unavoidable faults of the performance with lenient
forbearance.
[Illustration]
For the space of a century, Rowlandson's caricatures, which are more
properly _croquis_ of the life which surrounded him, have continued
to afford delight to the appreciators of graphic humour, from the
date, 1775, when he sent his first contribution to the Royal Academy.
It was only this year (1878) that a pair of his remarkably spirited
drawings, _Faro Table at Devonshire House_, and _A Gaming Table_,
attracted considerable praise and attention on the walls of the
Grosvenor Gallery. Although the artist was master of the most elegant
refinement, both of delineation and colouring, and produced the most
delicious female heads with that lightness and daintiness of touch
which was his peculiar gift, bringing all the graces, sparkle and
animation of the French school to bear upon the models of winsome
female beauty our own favoured isles produced for the exercise of his
pencil, we are constrained to admit, thus early in our summary, that
too many of his productions are strongly tinctured by that coarseness
of subject and sentiment which has been held to disfigure the works
of contemporary humorists; his wit, it must be remembered, was of the
jocose school of Smollett and Fielding, and in justice it must be taken
into consideration that his designs, even in their most uncompromising
and grosser aspects, simply reflect the colour of a period which was
the reverse of squeamish, and, as has been pertinently observed by the
late Thomas Wright, 'of a generation celebrated for anything rather
than delicacy.'
[Illustration]
The artist was pretty generally recognised as the famous illustrator
of _Doctor Syntax_ and _The Dance of Death_, and in this relation
he is fairly acknowledged by posterity; this limited view, as the
present volume is designed to demonstrate, being far indeed from an
adequate acknowledgment of his proper artistic standing. Rowlandson's
higher qualifications, as a draughtsman in water-colours of remarkable
merit, a portrait-painter of felicitous promise, and the originator
of countless witty and pointed conceptions, were discovered more
tardily. His surprising facility for representing the human figure,
with knowledge and freedom of execution, his marvellous power of
combining groups and crowds of figures in active movement, his grasp of
expression, and fluency of colour and handling, were more particularly
admitted (though in a sense they have since been lost sight of)
after the Exhibition of 1862, where two of his truly characteristic
subjects, of considerable size, made their appearance on the walls,
to the amazement and delight of the spectators, who had no previous
acquaintance with his whimsical genius. These two drawings, which
opened the eyes of the world to his gifts for a little season, are
entitled _An English Review_ and _A French Review_; they originally
formed a very noticeable feature on the walls of the Royal Academy in
1786; it is believed that eventually they came into the possession of
the Prince of Wales, and, with the rest of George IV.'s collection,
have remained in keeping of the royal family ever since, her gracious
Majesty, the Queen, being pleased to lend them, with other fine
representative examples of art, to the Exhibition Commissioners of 1862.
The _English Review_, and its companion drawing, a _French Review_,
hang at Windsor Castle, where we are informed there is a very large
accumulation of caricatures, drawings and prints, put away in a closet,
in the order of their appearance; which, it is likely, have remained
undisturbed for generations. It is not impossible that, hidden away
in this mass of satirical productions, may be found the series of
drawings, notoriously of a free tendency as regards subject, which
Rowlandson is understood to have produced for the delectation of George
IV. A collection of a similar description was, as we learn from the
same authority, destroyed by a nobleman well known for his princely
liberality, on the death of the patron who had selected the subjects.
In the unrivalled collection of water-colour drawings of the English
school, which are found on the walls of the sumptuous permanent
Museum of Art at South Kensington, are exhibited three characteristic
examples of Rowlandson's talents in the caricature direction. _The
Parish Vestry_, 1784, a humorous and spirited drawing, belonging to
the artist's best time, formed part of the munificent gift made by Mr.
William Smith to the nation; as did the second example, entitled _Brook
Green Fair_, which we should assign to about the year 1800. The third
drawing, representing _The old Elephant and Castle Inn, Newington_, is
also due to a liberal donor, being the gift of G. W. Atkinson, Esq.
[Illustration]
As has been related, the caricaturist produced thousands of capital
drawings, delicately tinted, excelling in all styles; and from these
original designs, he executed in turn thousands of spirited etchings
with his own hand, which were frequently coloured to reproduce the
first sketches, or aquatinted by engravers (sometimes by himself), in
imitation of drawings tenderly shaded in Indian ink, to which, in some
instances, the resemblance is sufficiently faithful to deceive the eye
of anyone who is not familiar with this method of reproduction.
It must be borne in mind--and we insist the more earnestly on this
point, as, from some incomprehensible wilfulness, it has seemingly been
suffered to sink out of sight for a time--in treating of Rowlandson,
that the man was essentially an artist; it is undoubtedly true that
he was gifted (perhaps we might consider fatally as far as his proper
estimation is concerned) with the faculty known as _caricature_, and
he excelled in burlesque, but his successes were sufficiently high
in other branches of the artist's profession to indicate that he was
equally qualified by original talents, by academic training which he
might have turned to the best advantage, by a sense of the beautiful
unusually keen, and a happy power of expressing his first impressions,
to take a foremost place amongst the best recognised masters of the
early English school, to whose body he might have been an ornament, if
he had not preferred his chosen calling of 'a free-lance' with a roving
commission to work mischief. His remarkable gifts of originality, ever
fertile, and apparently exhaustless, and facile powers of invention,
either pleasant or terrific, which seemed spontaneous, were in his
case insurmountable hindrances, instead of promoting his advancement
and reputation as a painter of acknowledged value and eminence. He had
the calamity--so fatal, in his and many other instances, to serious
application--to succeed without sensible effort; from the very first
his progress was a series of triumphs; none of the students of the
Academy could draw such ludicrous and yet life-like figures, and thus
his popularity with his fellow-labourers was assured; his studies from
the nude, both in London and in Paris, were wonderful for the rapid
ease and talent with which they were executed, and hence arose another
source of glorification, and although personal vanity has never been
mentioned in connection with the artist (he being thoroughly blind to
everything but his own particular hobbies), the professors at home
and abroad, and the members of the Academy themselves, were proud
to patronise in their classes such precocious ability, which could
accomplish the most difficult delineations without effort, and thus
reflected credit on their schools; and the prodigy who drew from the
life, in his youth, as vigorously and well as the most painstaking
adepts in their maturity, could not fail to receive a dangerous amount
of admiration, which tempted him to depend upon trifling exertions, and
left his ambition without a spur.
[Illustration]
While yet in his boyhood he was recognised as a genius, and was
unhappily flattered into becoming a wayward one; the very fluency of
his pencil, and the fidelity of his memory towards the grotesque side
of things proved his stumbling-blocks. It is with more than a passing
shade of regret that we reflect, with his far-seeing colleagues at
the Academy and elsewhere, how eminent a painter was lost in the
development of a _caricaturist_, admirable and unsurpassed in his own
branch as Rowlandson must admittedly remain. The gifts which were
in the man were marvellous, and beyond this he possessed nerve to
persevere, and manly resolution to sustain his exertions, as he proved
in his youth, and subsequently demonstrated when past life's meridian,
times then being less prosperous, since fortunes and legacies had long
ceased to fall in adventitiously, but the very excitement of setting
the little world wondering, and making the public smile, while his
tickled audience accorded him the cheapest popularity by crowding in
admiration round his travesties, turned the wilful artist away from
serious application, where no immediate fun was to be secured for
either the limner or his following.
Rowlandson's sense of feminine loveliness, of irresistible graces of
face, expression, and attitude, was unequalled in its way; several of
his female portraits have been mistaken for sketches by Gainsborough
or Moreland, and as such, it is possible, since the caricaturist is
so little known in this branch, that many continue to pass current.
From 1777 to 1781, five years of Rowlandson's residence in Wardour
Street, with all the freshness of his academic studies, and the
laurels unfaded he had won in the schools, with golden opinions, as
a youth of paramount promise, indulged by the most eminent of the
Royal Academicians and the French professors, the artist practised
the more laborious and prosaic, but surer branch of portrait-painting
with success, and his pictures were duly received by his patrons and
well-wishers amongst the omnipotent Forty, and found their place on
the walls of the Royal Academy Exhibition without a break--no barren
compliment when it is remembered that his compeers were Reynolds,
Gainsborough, and Hoppner, and that of the two or three hundred works
selected for the gallery at the period referred to, the superb canvases
of the artists named constituted an average of over ten per cent. of
the entire exhibits.
[Illustration]
If we but think for a passing instant over the winsome portraitures
of fair women, whose faces live, for the delectation of all time,
on the canvases of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, and a
few lesser luminaries, it is cruel to realise that Rowlandson, from
sheer wantonness (promoted by what seemed a happy hit in 1784),[3]
neglected his opportunities in the direction of portraiture, with an
indifference which, while proving his disinterestedness and superiority
to mere profit, is the more exasperating when we are frequently told,
as every one of Rowlandson's contemporaries who has mentioned the
caricaturist never fails to reiterate, that the successive presidents
of the Royal Academy, the great Reynolds, the royally patronised West,
the courtly and fashionable Lawrence, the very men we have mentioned
who were, it must be conceded, the most competent judges on the point,
pronounced their conviction that his abilities entitled to acceptance,
as one of themselves, a brother artist whose addition to their ranks
they would have gloried to acknowledge, since he had the undoubted
genius to reflect a lustre on the Academy, if he had exerted his
talents in the recognised channels, and withstood the impulse of his
notoriety for producing irresistibly droll novelties, which, as they
foresaw, must infallibly prove pernicious to the practice of sober
portraiture.
The versatile acquirements of our artist may, in a sense, be looked
upon as an infirmity, a theory which had been thoroughly established
while the subject of it remained in the flesh, and enjoyed a certain
perverse gratification in contributing to support its soundness and
perspicacity.
[Illustration]
In landscape art we discover Rowlandson successfully rivalling the most
respected practitioners in water-colours amongst his contemporaries,
and helping the younger professional generation, that carried the art
to perfection, to discard the obsolete theories of blackness for clear
translucid colouring. His studies after nature are much esteemed, and
are to be occasionally recognised in galleries and collections. It
is a sufficiently capricious circumstance which has come within our
experience--we have heard it asserted confidently more than once--that
Rowlandson, the simple harmonious colourist and ready draughtsman,
whose brush with limpid tints so deftly translated on paper the charms
of sylvan scenes; the truthful artist who pictured the forest, fall,
and glade, the distant hamlets amidst the foliage, the picturesque
windings of the silver stream, the rustic cottages, the cattle wending
leisurely through the fertile pastures, the mellow atmosphere, and the
far-extending horizon, is often held a distinct individual from that
other universally known Rowlandson--of equivocal reputation, it is
hinted--whose daring reed-pen produced grotesques which perhaps were
inimitable, but which, it is certain, were often indefensibly vulgar.
The artist's facility was so considerable that, had he been less
scrupulous (his horror of fraud and imposition, especially in their
pecuniary reference, was implacable, in spite of, or perhaps in
contradistinction to, his other levities), he could have allowed his
own productions, in the manner of his reputable contemporaries, and
even of deceased celebrities, whose subjects and method he chose to
imitate as a question of pure ingenuity--(while his own style is above
all difficult to reproduce)--to pass current as veritable originals by
the masters. A book of etchings consisting entirely of these imitations
is described in the course of this work, and he has managed to assume,
without copying any particular picture, the _modus operandi_ of the
artists, and has varied his own manner of execution and disguised
his salient individualities with such subtlety, that, even to the
etching-point, slight trace of Rowlandson remains to betray the
acknowledged imposition.
In his sketches after nature, as we have ventured to advance in
respect to his female portraits and delicious studies from life, in
many instances it is difficult to distinguish between the artless
rustic groupings and charming pastoral drawings by George Moreland
and Thomas Gainsborough, let alone those of Barrett, Hills, Howitt,
Pugh, and other of his associates (who executed pictures lightly
outlined with a reed-pen, shaded with a warm tint and delicately washed
with transparent water-colours, as was then the process),[4] and the
acknowledged contributions of our versatile genius to this department,
in the earlier stages of the captivating art of water-colour drawing.
[Illustration]
The writer, in the course of his preparation for this work, has been
at the pains to consult more than one well-recognised artist of
reputation and authority; seeking for hints from professors whose
celebrity extended well back towards the beginning of the nineteenth
century; these respected ancients, who are now nearly all gathered to
the shades to join the subject of this volume, being from their age,
knowledge, and experience, as well as from the traditions of their
earlier masters, most likely to know and remember circumstances of a
special character bearing upon the subject. Some of these worthies were
actually working as contemporaries of the caricaturist who departed
fifty years ago. The last time the writer met George Cruikshank, a
few months before that truly splendid old gentleman passed away, full
of years and honour, to his well-earned repose, he took occasion to
allude to the veteran's acknowledged admiration for the works of his
extraordinarily endowed predecessor, James Gillray, in whose footsteps
he had very literally commenced his career, being selected during the
lifetime of the gifted caricaturist (when Gillray's genius had proved
too exacting for the tension of his faculties, and his reason had
unhappily departed, never to be restored beyond an occasional lucid
flitter) to complete several plates which the attacks of his malady
had suspended. George Cruikshank, the most deservedly popular of the
name, was not a little proud of having been thought worthy, while
still a very young man (Gillray's faculties were deranged in 1811), to
take up the plates of the first genius that has adorned his art. With
the earnestness of his disposition, and perhaps with characteristic
partiality, he regarded the unfortunate Gillray as the greatest man, in
his eyes, who ever lived, indisputably 'the prince of caricaturists,'
as he has appropriately christened him, and this title, won from a
loving disciple, who, in his turn, became still more famous, is likely
to last as long as the great caricaturist is remembered.
[Illustration]
George Cruikshank voluntarily called on the writer to express the
interest he good-naturedly felt in certain slight records of past
caricaturists then publishing, and to communicate some valuable facts
about the works of his father, a meritorious artist whose reputation
would be widely increased if his pictures, exhibited at the Royal
Academy, were better known. On a subsequent occasion the cheery veteran
imparted various anecdotes on the subject within his knowledge,
but confessed that he had never been admitted to terms of personal
familiarity with either Gillray or Rowlandson in the flesh. It was his
father, Isaac Cruikshank--for whose graphic powers in the same walk
he expressed the best deserved and truest filial respect--who enjoyed
their intimacy, and it was he who related (with a genial force happily
done justice to by his descendant) to his deeply interested son the
circumstances with which George was acquainted.
The writer was naturally eager to gather, while there was yet time,
any facts which might be of importance for the furtherance of his
contemplated sketch of Rowlandson's career, which was then occupying
all his energies, from the last representative of the famous
caricaturists, who formed, in himself, so desirable a link with the
generation of the Georgian epoch, which had been dissolved into the
thinnest elements for three-fourths of a century back. Cruikshank
expressed the most cordial interest in the undertaking, and genially
declared, by way of an encouragement, which is the writer's most
appreciated reward, that he should look forward to its successful
completion, and further promised that if, in revising his notes, and
the personal memoirs, touching upon such kindred topics (which, as
he imparted, had long employed his leisure), he could discover any
allusions of an interesting description to his gifted contemporary
Rowlandson, or any similar memoranda left by his father, he would
communicate them for the benefit of the present volume. His death has
unfortunately prevented the accomplishment of this valued service,
which was volunteered spontaneously with his well-known readiness to
confer favours.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The point about Rowlandson which had most impressed George Cruikshank
is somewhat original, and properly belongs to this part of our
subject; hence we have been glad to have an opportunity of quoting the
trustworthy authority of the aged caricaturist. 'Rowlandson,' said
George, 'was a remarkable man in most respects;' the waywardness of
his youth and the notoriety of his gambling days seemed to have rather
prejudicially influenced the mind of his simpler successor, who had
taken his place in 1827, as he had, almost of right, succeeded to
the working-table and unfinished plates of James Gillray, many years
before. Cruikshank, moreover, considered that Rowlandson's academical
successes, his successful rivalry of Mortimer in depicting the nude,
the knowledge of his art and the fluency he had acquired, were
altogether exceptional features in the profession of a caricaturist,
to his English views; but, according to his kindly creed, mellowed by
age--his steel a trifle tempered since his own youth, when his shafts
too were not without poignancy--'Rolley' was somewhat unreflecting,
and reckless in exposing the infirmities of others, having but scant
regard for his own reputation or the feelings of society, and further
he had suffered himself to be led away from the exercise of his
legitimate subjects, to produce works of a reprehensible tendency,
which respectable dictum will probably find numerous subscribers.
[Illustration: A SHIPPING SCENE.]
Strangely as it may sound, it was not as a caricaturist that Rowlandson
had gained Cruikshank's admiration; he appreciated the artist
enthusiastically as an accomplished water-colour painter, the equal in
his opinion of most of the founders of our special school. Rowlandson's
masterly power over the delineation of the figure, and his happy
gift, amounting almost to inspiration, of portraying female charms
of face and person, deserved high regard in Cruikshank's estimation;
his peculiarly felicitous pictures of quaint Continental life, and
the examples his free and scholarly handling held out, as admirable
models of style to the French caricaturists of his day; the social
sketches produced in Paris at the beginning of the century, though
remarkable for neatness and delicacy, being laborious, formal, timid,
and wanting in that racy comicality, and dashing power of expression,
characterising the drawings under consideration, to which George
accorded unqualified praise.
[Illustration]
It was chiefly for his skill in landscape delineation that Cruikshank
respected the artist under discussion, and more especially, as he
declared, warming with his reminiscences of the drawings he called
to mind, he had never seen anything superior, in his estimation,
to Rowlandson's water-side and maritime sketches, for their clear
freshness and simple air of fidelity to nature; the banks of the
river, the 'pool' filled with vessels, wharves, landing-places,
ports, and naval stations, with the noble men-of-war lying off; and
the bustling craft, travelling between the fleet and the shore; the
groups of busy figures, far and near, happily introduced in a state of
seeming activity; the shipping, which he drew with picturesque ease
and dexterity, his far-spreading landscapes and distant horizons, the
treatment of the water, the movement of his skies, and the general
sense of expanse and atmosphere, were beautiful in the extreme, all
noted down, as they were, without apparently a second thought, with the
slightest possible labour, recalling in a forcible degree the drawings
of William Vandevelde, who was, in Cruikshank's opinion, the only
artist whose marine studies could be quoted in comparison with those of
Rowlandson.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE QUAY.]
We are necessarily anxious to avoid the suspicion of attempting to
prove too much, and it must be admitted that we do not pronounce
Rowlandson a Rubens, a William Vandevelde, a Reynolds, and a Moreland,
all at once; any more than we can be deluded into the belief that
his landscape drawings might be claimed by Turner, Girtin, De Wint,
Fielding, or David Cox. In treating of our artist in relation to the
truly great names which have been frequently put into contrast with his
own, it must not be forgotten that his works are spoken of, as they
exist, under their modest condition of sketches manipulated in the very
slightest manner possible, and, if considered at all in juxtaposition
with those of the higher luminaries, it is only by the side of
studies executed under similar circumstances; it would be a piece of
pretension, entirely out of character on our part, to even suggest
submitting Rowlandson's attempts in the most respectable exercise of
his talents in competition with the more substantial finished and
ambitious pictures bequeathed us by the select few of really eminent
painters, whose unrivalled works cannot fail to afford the most
unqualified delight to all cultivated lovers of art of whatever school.
_Their_ productions are admitted to stand alone, even though there
exist diversities of opinion, schisms, and heresies in regard to the
generality of the profession.
* * * * *
In resuming our summary of Rowlandson's conceptions in the _caricature_
branch, we must notice, while contemplating his strongly characterised
works, that, while the rest of his competitors in the grotesque walk
have in most examples left no record of their prints beyond the plates
on which they were executed, for every subject he has produced of
his own designing, at least one corresponding drawing has existed,
and frequently three or four variations of leading ideas are worked
out as completed pictures, without, however, any appearance of
experimentalising under difficulties of execution--technical points
never puzzled his skill; and such daring flights as Rubens ventured
with the brush, in the way of foreshortened and difficult attitudes,
Rowlandson's reed-pen accomplished right merrily, as if by its own
volition, and without a thought on the part of its highly-trained
wielder, about such common-place requirements as the posing of living
models or preparatory sketches. The original notions of Rowlandson's
whimsical inventions are in the generality of instances far worthier of
attention than the most spirited etchings he thought fit to circulate
after them; and it is well to keep in mind that the artist has produced
some thousands of humorous conceptions (placing his more serious
studies out of the question), of which no engraving has ever appeared;
and amongst these unpublished delineations may be included several
of the most ingenious and attractive pictures executed by his hand,
especially from the year 1790, that is to say, for more than two-thirds
of his professional life--a circumstance with which every collector of
original drawings by this artist is thoroughly conversant.
The career of Rowlandson may be divided into periods; the work
belonging properly to the several stages is tolerably distinctive as to
general characteristics. An adept can positively determine, within a
year or two, the particular section to which his designs, when the date
happens to be wanting, may be justly assigned, and, as his manifold
sketches and etchings extend over the space of half a century, this
circumstance is a trifle remarkable in itself.
The first period, as far as his published plates are concerned,
includes his smaller social and political satires; the execution,
though free and fluent, as his productions uniformly were, exhibits
indications of care which is not so traceable as his method grew
mellower, and practice confirmed the facility which came to him as a
gift. These juvenile etchings bear more affinity to Gillray's manner of
manipulation than is traceable in his subsequent cartoons. A view of _A
Hazard Table_ and its frequenters (_E.O. or the fashionable Vowels_,
October 28, 1781) offers perhaps the best indications of his growing
powers, between 1774 and 1783. His publishers were Humphrey, Holland,
Jackson, and a few others; and he further appears, in conjunction with
J. Jones, to have gone into the publishing way himself, at 103 Wardour
Street.
[Illustration]
In 1784 the excitement of the famous Westminster Election seems to
have carried him more thoroughly into political satires, and, as we
observe, his humour discovered an unflagging source of impulse round
the parliamentary candidates, Fox, Wray, and Hood; the fair Duchess of
Devonshire, Lady Duncannon, and honest Sam House, the Whig canvassers,
and their opponents on the ministerial side, the Hon. Mrs. Hobart
(Lady Buckinghamshire), and the Duchess of Gordon; together with the
whimsicalities of the polling-booth. If we were asked to select his
most noticeable social and satirical effusions, we should incline
to particularise _English Curiosity, or the Foreigner stared out of
countenance_; 1784, _or the Fashions of the Day_; and _A Sketch from
Nature_ (January 24, 1784).
In 1784, Rowlandson realised the full extent both of his powers of
fancy and his mastery of the art of water-colour delineation. He
discontinued the practice of sending portraits to the Exhibition of
the Royal Academy, in which he had persevered for five years, and
contributed in their places three mirth-provoking drawings, which
must have produced no little sensation amongst the visitors, who
were unaccustomed to such works. These were the inimitable _Vauxhall
Gardens_, which reveals his talents at their best, _An Italian Family_,
and _The Serpentine River_.
In 1785 appeared some of John Raphael Smith's graceful publications
after Rowlandson's more refined originals, notably _Vauxhall_, _Opera
Boxes_, _Toying and Trifling_, _An Italian Family_, _A French Family_,
_Grog on Board_, _Tea on Shore_; _Filial Affection, or a Trip to
Gretna Green_; _Reconciliation_; _Intrusion on Study, or the Painter
disturbed_; _Comfort in the Gout_; and several other excellent subjects
in his most finished manner, besides an animated scene after Henry
Wigstead, _John Gilpin's Return to London_.
Rowlandson sent five important and highly humorous drawings, displaying
advanced qualities in the direction of execution, to the Royal Academy
in 1786; those of the first consequence were _An English Review_, _A
French Review_, the pair exhibited at the International Exhibition
1862; _Opera House Gallery_, under which designation, as we suspect, we
recognise his _Box Lobby Loungers_, published the very same year; _A
French Family_ (published the year previous); and _A Coffee House_, of
which we can discover no further record.
Among the engraved works for the same year we must refer to the
print of _Box Lobby Loungers_, already mentioned, and _Covent Garden
Theatre_, as the most noticeable as to size, subject, and the numerous
figures introduced.
[Illustration]
Rowlandson sent four known works to the Royal Academy, the season
following (1787). They were _French Barracks_, a superlative drawing,
_Grog on Board a Ship_, _Countrymen and Sharpers_ (engraved by
Sherwin as _Smithfield Sharpers_), and _The Morning Dram, or Huntsman
rising_, engraved as _Four o'clock in the Country_, S. W. Fores
(October 20, 1790). All Rowlandson's contributions for this year have
been published; indeed, it is very possible, from the popularity of
the caricaturist's novel exhibits, that all the pictures he sent to
the Royal Academy were straightway issued on copper. There are two
exceptions, _The Serpentine_ and _A Coffee House_, of which the writer
has never succeeded in meeting impressions, but it by no means follows
that sooner or later they may not come to light, and it does not seem
unlikely that the first named, _The Serpentine River_, may be another
version of _Cold Broth and Calamity_ (published in 1792).
Amongst the engraved works of 1787, the writer instances _Baron Ron's
Dental Surgery, or Transplanting of Teeth_, and a series of five
_Hunting Scenes_, _The Morning_, _The Meet_, _The Run_, _The Death_,
and _The Dinner_, published in a folio size, and now somewhat rarely
met with as a set.
In the two succeeding years Rowlandson again threw his etching-point
into party conflicts, and came out with a shower of political squibs
on the amenities of the _Regency Struggle_. Nothing very ambitious in
the way of social satires appeared in 1788. Among minor subjects we may
allude to _Housebreakers_, _A Cart Race_, _The School for Scandal_, _A
Fencing Match_, _A Print Sale_, _Lust and Avarice_, and _Luxury and
Desire_, as being slightly above the average. In 1789 and 1790 but few
works of exceptional character were issued to gratify Rowlandson's
devoted admirers or the general public. _She don't deserve it!_ _Don't
he deserve it?_ _A Racing Series_, _The Course_, _The Betting Post_,
_The Mount_, _The Start_, and _A Fresh Breeze_, take the lead. _La
Place des Victoires à Paris_ belongs to 1789, and, in the writer's
estimation, it is perhaps one of the most attractive subjects due to
the artist's pencil, exhibiting, as it does, the quaint surroundings of
Parisian life, as noted by the caricaturist before the Revolutionary
era--delineations of feminine beauty, and studies of real character,
such as no effort of the imagination could fabricate, unless assisted
by travel, a familiar acquaintance with the locality, and keen
observation. A fitting companion is given to this delightful subject in
another important drawing, crowded with diversified life and animated
groups, produced in 1800; _The Thuilleries in Paris_, a reminiscence of
previous studies in the French metropolis, of manners noted anterior to
the destruction of antiquated fashions; the dainty _belles_ of _ton_,
and the picturesque society which might be discovered flourishing under
the reign of Louis XVI., before the inauguration of the all-devouring
Republic, which worked more change in a few feverish months of
turbulence, in which all the recognised phases of the past were lost,
than many sober decades had effected in their better regulated courses.
[Illustration]
The best of Rowlandson's publications for 1790 were _A Kick-up at a
Hazard Table_, in which, as may be supposed, he was perfectly at home;
_Four o'clock in the Morning in Town_, which was also in the artist's
way, and its companion, _Four o'clock in the Morning in the Country_;
_Frog-hunting_ (Gallic _gourmets fins_), and _Tythe Pig_, a fine old
English equivalent.
The year 1791 was richer in those more ambitious plates, which the
writer is seeking to identify, and several of the caricaturist's
choicer subjects appeared, etched by his hand, and finished in
aquatint, to facsimile the meritorious original drawings. _A Squall in
Hyde Park_ is one of the score or two of delineations of the highest
type, which adequately demonstrate the exceptional qualifications of
the artist; and these, we have no hesitation in averring, have never
been excelled in their walk, as far as executive ability, sense
of loveliness, grouping, movement, grasp of character, powers of
observation, and diverting qualities are concerned. Another remarkable
subject of extraordinary ability, founded on Rowlandson's Continental
studies, entitled _French Barracks_ (exhibited in 1787), and its
pendant, _English Barracks_, were issued this year. _An Inn Yard on
Fire_, belonging to the same important series; _The Attack_; _The
Prospect before us_; _The Pantheon_; _Chaos is Come Again_, in allusion
to the dilapidated state of Drury Lane theatre condemned by the
surveyors; _Toxophilites_; _House breakers_; _Damp Sheets_ and _Slugs
in a Saw Pit_, among the numerous lesser subjects, bring up the total
of the truly estimable works which gratified the public in 1791.
_Cold Broth and Calamity_, a skating scene representing disasters in
the park, from a ludicrous point of view; _A Dutch Academy_, drawn
from the caricaturist's experiences in the Netherlands; and _Studious
Gluttons_ were the leading plates published in 1792.
[Illustration]
_New Shoes_, a small, but delicate subject, belongs to 1793.
In 1797 appeared the admirable plates published after Rowlandson's
studies in the Netherlands; we cannot too highly commend such
inimitable originals as _Fyge Dam, Amsterdam_; _Stadt House,
Amsterdam_; _Companion View, Amsterdam_; and _Place de Mer, Antwerp_.
_Admiral Nelson Recruiting with his Brave Tars after the Glorious
Battle of the Nile_, was published in 1798; a series of _London Views_,
of considerable merit and importance, entrances to the great metropolis
from the four leading turnpikes; and a series of twelve plates
portraying the _Comforts of Bath_, are most worthy of attention in
the same year, as were some large studies of reviews of the Volunteer
Forces, held under the threat of the anticipated French invasion.
_Distress_, from a large picture, indicating the horrors of shipwreck
with tragic impressiveness, is assigned to 1799.
_Summer Amusement, a Game at Bowls_; _Doctor Botherum, the Mountebank_;
_Preparations for the Academy_; _and A French Ordinary_, were among
the noticeable features of the artist's publications in 1800; the
peculiarly interesting panorama of the Parisian world anterior to
the French Revolution, entitled _The Thuilleries in Paris_ was also
produced this year.
Rowlandson's skill as an etcher had further, about this time, provided
him with abundance of work in executing the humorous conceptions of
Woodward and Bunbury after his own characteristic fashion.
Rowlandson's plate of _The Brilliants_, and a long series of subjects
designed by Woodward, with many originals of his own, sufficiently
excellent in their order, but not of the first consequence, found
their way to the public in 1801. The leading print-publishers at the
West End, Rudolph Ackermann, S. W. Fores, Williamson, and Rowlandson
himself,[5] at his residence, 1 James Street, Adelphi, issued an
inexhaustible collection of highly ludicrous social satires, and
numerous patriotic and political subjects, during intervening years;
and in 1807 the name of Thomas Tegg of Cheapside was added to the
print-publishers who employed the remunerative talents of the
indefatigable caricaturist. Rowlandson also continued to execute
the whimsical conceptions of less qualified draughtsmen, and swarms
of comicalities--by Woodward, Bunbury, Wigstead, Nixon, and other
fashionable amateurs, who possessed the humorous vein, but lacked
the skill to give their ideas a fitting form for presentation to the
public--were put into acceptable shape, and etched by our artist at
this period.
[Illustration]
In 1808 appeared the long succession of _Miseries of Human Life_,
of which examples occur in previous years; and Rowlandson settled
down, somewhat grimly, under worthy Mr. Ackermann's auspices, to take
up the gauntlet against the dreaded Buonaparte, the great little
Corsican, against whom Gillray had waged such savage warfare until his
powers dwindled into vacancy, and George Cruikshank stepped valiantly
into the place of the colossus of caricaturists, and carried on the
combat with unflagging zeal and whimsicality on his own account.
Rowlandson's ludicrous attacks upon the ambitious 'disturber of the
peace of Europe' were duly appreciated by his audience, and the
demand for these blood-and-thunder caricatures increased monthly,
to the extreme delectation of the great British public, whose
antipathies to the conquering general were, at least, founded on sound
and excusable principles, and if the overflowing excess of their
detestation sometimes blinded the people to points of detail, and
wilful misrepresentations passed current, and rather swamped their more
generous sentiments--which were put out of sight for awhile--it must be
remembered that this patriotic zeal was well directed against the man
who had announced his august intention of subjugating England, and was,
by accord, considered as the common enemy, and anyone who had indulged
the temerity of openly acknowledging the grander elements of his
character, since pretty tolerably established, would have been flouted
by acclamation, and we are not sure but the national scorn would have
fittingly signalised such an unpatriotic enormity.
It is certain that the caricaturist's travesties of the little emperor,
his burlesques of his great actions, and grandiose declarations
(which, in themselves, occasionally overdid the heroic, and trenched
hazardously on the ludicrous), his figurative displays of the mean
origin of the imperial family, with the cowardice and depravity
of its members, won the popular applause; as did the satirist's
representations of the hollowness of Boney's vaunted victories, and
the treachery of his designs in the days of his success; and, when
disasters began to cloud the career of the mighty Napoleon, and
cherished projects were met with sickening failures--as army after
army, collected for the slaughter by schemes, lies, fraud, and force,
melted away, and the prostrate powers of the Continent plucked up
courage, singly at first and finally in legions, until the end of the
Corsican's glory arrived--the artist lent his skill to celebrate the
delight of the public, and the rejoicings over the discomfiture of
the traditional bugbear; glib cartoons were hurried off by Ackermann
and often by Tegg--the City competing with the West End in the loyal
contest of proving the national enmity to Buonaparte, by buying every
caricature--the more extravagant the better relished--that the artists,
who toiled like Trojans while the harvest lasted, could contrive to
furnish in season for the demand.
[Illustration]
A suspicion crosses our mind that, in too many cases, the incentive
was to gratify the hatred of the Corsican, rather than any remarkable
inherent merit that could be discovered in the satires; the best
of which were but feeble vehicles for the exhibition of the jovial
abilities of the designers; who, we dare venture to hint, found
themselves a little out of their element, plunged, as it were, in the
'blood and iron' theory, striking out with their etching points with
the most approved pantomimic vengeance! Very few of these mock-heroic
sallies imprint themselves on the recollection by the sheer force of
their own brilliancy, as was the case in the single instance of James
Gillray, in the past, and as happened--an undeniable test of the
veritable fire of genius--frequently with the cartoons of John Tenniel
within our own experience, when the magnitude of the occasion has
conjured up the inspiration, and rekindled the latent flame.
Our reflections upon the bellicose creations of Rowlandson and
Cruikshank, while their hostile vapourings continue irresistibly droll,
never stir the more passionate emotions or reach impulses which lie
below the surface; being risible, it is true, but the reverse of
inspired; and although many a hearty laugh may be enjoyed over the
ludicrous turn the twain caricaturists have, in spite of themselves,
given to situations of an avowedly tragic tendency, their very fury
seems an unctuous jest, their simulated earnestness takes a farcical
turn, and the result of a careful review, as the writer has made quite
recently, of their prolific slaughterous sallies, is the conviction
that, often unconsciously to themselves, they have chiefly succeeded,
from the inevitable bent of their innate humoristic impulses, in
burlesquing the fiery feeling abroad, which the public were contented
to gratify in pictorial guise.
It is certain that those discriminating critics best qualified to
appreciate the talents of Rowlandson and Cruikshank, who worked up the
anti-Corsican crusade contemporaneously, are continually disposed to
regret that the wondrous inventive abilities of these fertile designers
were not exercised in a more congenial field.
[Illustration]
Our caricaturist worked away, fierce and implacable, following every
turn of Boney's fortunes with a show of savage ardour, until the
idol fell in 1815. Rowlandson, in addition to the immense mass of
caricatures which he fabricated with unflagging energy, came out
brilliantly with several large transparencies, painted for public
exhibition, outside Ackermann's Repository, on the occasion of the
general illuminations, which fittingly signalised the successes of the
allied armies after Leipsig, the final downfall of the Emperor after
Waterloo, and the subsequent peace rejoicings.
A fresh subject for the exercise of Rowlandson's caricature
capabilities was furnished in 1809 by the scandalous revelations which
were disclosed, as evidence at the bar of the House of Commons, during
the 'inquiry into the corrupt practices of the Commander-in-Chief, in
the administration of the army.' With ill-advised weakness the popular
Duke of York seems to have transferred the exercise of the patronage
legitimately invested in his department, to Mrs. M. A. Clarke, a
clever and unscrupulous mistress, whose extravagances he had for
awhile contributed to support at Gloucester Place. The demand for this
exciting pabulum was sufficiently eager to induce the caricaturist to
bring out a fresh pictorial satire almost daily, and sometimes two or
more appeared on the same day, while the 'delicate investigation' was
proceeding, and the public interest in the circumstances remained at a
boiling heat. We are not inclined to argue that any of these ephemeral
compositions, superior as they were to the ruck of contemporaneous
productions, were worthy, in any degree, of the artist's graphic
powers, or were likely to contribute to his celebrity. For some time
Rowlandson's ambition seemed to cool down, and although he was working
hard, and producing a fair average of results, he appeared satisfied
to turn his skill to the most prosaic account, as the means of earning
a livelihood. He made no fresh efforts to astonish his admirers,
or to sustain his fame by novel efforts of genius, such as we have
particularised as appearing before the commencement of the nineteenth
century.
Among the countless caricatures, good, bad, and indifferent, according
to the circumstances of their publication, produced between 1809
and the close of the designer's career, nearly twenty years later,
we cannot direct the reader's attention to many subjects above the
generality of similar productions by Rowlandson's hand. It must be
borne in mind that the artist's opportunities for graceful delineation
had been considerably curtailed; the fair leaders of the old
picturesque generation, whose effigies beam so charmingly on Reynolds's
canvases, and the days of powder, flowing locks, silk coats, laces,
lappels, and their accompaniments, had gradually disappeared, and left
a prosier people, of sober exterior, in their stead. The difference
between the exteriors of Rowlandson's lively personages, at the earlier
part of the career, is so distinct from the outward appearance of his
surroundings, and of the world which continued to exercise his pencil,
at the close of his years, that it is extremely difficult, with the
evidence before our eyes, to credit that such extreme changes could
take place within the lifetime of one individual. The wanton cruelty of
time in dealing thus harshly with the delicious models, which at one
period seemed expressly constituted for the exercise of Rowlandson's
pencil, may have discouraged the artist, and given him a distaste for
exertions of ambition in which his heart had no part, while his fancy
still hovered round his retrospects of the brilliant scenes, at home
and abroad, that had met his sight in his gallant youth.
[Illustration]
A few of Rowlandson's plates in 1811 recall his best days, but we are
not too confident that the originals veritably belong to the year which
is engraved upon the plates; indeed, in two cases at least, _Exhibition
Stare Case, Somerset House_, and _Royal Academy, Somerset House_,
the caricatures are most probably reprints, with the dates altered.
This practice, common enough in his day, is productive of no slight
confusion; all Rowlandson's most popular conceptions, 'the palpable
hits' which held their own in the public favour, and were eagerly
secured, were republished from year to year, to meet the demand, and,
in most cases, the plate was freshly dated, as if the print had only
then appeared for the first time. This principle has complicated our
task, as it is most difficult to secure even a solitary impression of
the finer works, and but scant means exist of tracing them back to the
actual date, in the absence of any considerable collections to which
the student may apply for purposes of reference and comparison. If
the reader will be at the pains to consult the 'Appendix,' containing
the nearest approach to an arrangement of Rowlandson's works, under
the years of publication, the writer could arrive at under existing
circumstances, it will be seen that the same caricatures frequently
reappear, with altered dates, for successive years.
In the latter part of the artist's career, although he executed a great
many works of interest in themselves, and his inexhaustible social
satires are often meritorious, and always ingenious, his best talents
were devoted to the production of original drawings for immediate
sale. They were chiefly disposed of through the assistance of Rudolph
Ackermann, 101 Strand; and S. W. Fores, Piccadilly. Both these steady
patrons of the declining years of a genius, who must, in a sense, have
found the close of his life exposed to somewhat chilling influences,
are reported, on good authority, to have held hundreds of Rowlandson's
original drawings, scrap-books, and portfolios, filled with his
admirable sketches at the time of his death; but these collections have
of course been since dispersed.
[Illustration]
In addition to the immense gathering of water-colour drawings left by
Rowlandson, which had accumulated in the possession of those respected
gentlemen with whom he held business relations, there were several
fine collections, formed about the same period, to be found in the
possession of his intimates. Mitchell the banker, his constant friend
in town, with whom Rowlandson frequently travelled on the Continent,
had secured the most remarkable gallery of the artist's diversified
views abroad, and particularly his sketches of life and character in
France and the Netherlands, the latter being the most remarkable for
broad humour. Henry Angelo, the fencing-master, and Bannister, the
comedian, ancient school-fellows of the caricaturist, and, as will be
seen, faithful comrades through life, were also steady collectors of
his picturesque eccentricities, and many noblemen, and celebrities
of the day--among them is mentioned the name of the dashing, and
somewhat irrepressible, Lord Barrymore--took a pride in filling their
folios with his works, which, as we are told, they justly esteemed 'an
inexhaustible fund of amusement.'
A few later collections, with the names of the owners, and the titles
of the leading subjects, are mentioned at the end of this volume, with
a view to completing the interest of the subject, and affording a
slight indication of the whereabouts of many of his productions.
* * * * *
It appears from the statements of Rudolph Ackermann, Rowlandson's
industry was such that the considerate owner of the fashionable
Repository--favourite lounge of the dilettanti as it was--at last
found it difficult, as regards the selling department, to keep pace
with his friend's creative abilities. In short, the artist produced
drawings faster than the public, as it seems evident, felt inclined to
purchase them for the time being, and it became a perplexing problem
how to increase the demand proportionately to the supply; for the
multiplication of the sketches for awhile--probably under the spur of
some emergency, or the pressure of apprehensions for the future--became
so overwhelming that the worthy publisher, in his relation as a
practical man of business, fancied he foresaw the approaching
depreciation of the value of Rowlandson's drawings making such strides,
on the strength of an overstocked market, he was afraid, in the end,
the artist's remuneration would be so seriously diminished, that it
would not be worth his while to persevere, unless a new line could be
successfully struck out.
[Illustration]
These anticipations were probably well founded, and we cannot but
acknowledge that our artist had discarded prudence, and become
thoroughly reckless--at least, as far as we can judge by appearances,
for possibly he had more confidence in the ultimate request for his
studies than was entertained by his friendly employers, and time has
proved the soundness of his judgment. If the story we are told of his
novel method of multiplying his drawings is serious, it will strike
the reader that Mr. Ackermann had reason to feel anxious, on his
_protégé's_ account. It is related that Rowlandson would saunter from
his neighbouring lodgings in the Adelphi, round to the _Repository
of Arts_, and, as the title of Mr. Ackermann's establishment was no
misnomer, every possible appliance was therein found ready to hand.
The artist would then order a saucer of vermillion, and another of
Indian ink, ready ground, from the colourist's room, with reed pens,
and several sheets of drawing-paper; he would then combine his inks
in the proportions he thought proper, in the flesh lines vermillion
predominated, in draperies Indian ink, shadows were a warm mixture of
the two, and distant objects were faintly rendered in Indian ink alone.
The outline was filled in on this principle, but, as the designer's
own manual and dexterous rapidity had ceased to satisfy him, he
had ingeniously discovered an expeditious method of multiplication
sufficient for his purpose, without resorting to the sister art of
engraving. The drawing was made on the principle essential in any
engraving which has to give impressions, that is, the subject was
reversed, right being changed to left--the only extra care required;
the outline was somewhat stronger, and the reed-pen more fully
charged than was the usual practice, and when the design was completed
it formed the _matrix_ from which, before the ink became fixed, by
means of a press, and paper damped to the proper consistency, it was
easy to print off duplicates as long as the ink held out. We are
rather inclined to speculate that, ingenious as the process seems,
in description, it would by no means turn out a perennial flowing
fountain, and two or three decent replicas would exhaust the original,
however judiciously manipulated. The copies obtained by this manifold
contrivance were corrected and strengthened, according to their
requirements; the series of impressions were then shaded with Indian
ink, so as to lend the figures contour and solidity, and express the
lighter distance; and then came the final tinting, in delicate washes
of colour, and the completed works were ready for introduction to
the public. The writer does not believe that this _modus operandi_
was ever followed up systematically; that it has been resorted to on
occasions, his own observations have demonstrated; and he confesses
to a passing acquaintance with a collection of drawings by the artist
(belonging to a gentleman of distinction, who is quite satisfied as to
their merits), which are for the most part the results of this system,
and he has more than once, in the course of his peregrinations, come
across the _matrix_ design, very spread and mysterious as to outline,
having been exhausted in the working, but shaded with spirit, coloured,
and sent into the world, a shameless left-handed production, craftily
smuggled into circulation to confuse collectors, and throw discredit
on its dexter counterparts. This accounts for a certain proportion of
the duplicates after Rowlandson, which are of frequent occurrence; and
often have purchasers felt their self-esteem lowered, when another
possessor of the same design in a firmer outline has assured them that
they have been deceived into buying a mere copy, oblivious that the
guilty pair are both due to the hand of the master, and that possibly
other members of the same illicit family are lurking in the folios
of rival amateurs. A grand central gathering of works by Rowlandson,
presuming a person of sufficient enterprise could be found to prosecute
the scheme of a comprehensive exhibition of the artist's works, would
reveal some curiosities in the way of reproductive capability.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
For the credit of our artist, and the comfort of collectors, we can
record our assurance that this crafty method was never persevered in,
the replicas issued under this illegitimate contrivance are confined
to a brief period, the temptation to flood the market was kept within
restricted limits, and Mr. Ackermann's business aptitude quickly
discovered a method of enhancing the caricaturist's reputation and
augmenting his means, without the necessity of resorting to tricks
of ill-advised ingenuity. The successful projection of a series of
monthly publications allowed the indefatigable projector--who exercised
a princely liberality in his dealings, as publishers go--to pay his
friend, the artist, so handsomely, that he was relieved from the
necessity of multiplying his sketches in any inordinate profusion, and
enabled him to take more time and pains, both in seeking his subjects,
and working them out at his ease. The results of this happy conception,
_The Poetical Magazine_, the three _Tours of Doctor Syntax_, and _The
Dance of Death_, enjoyed unqualified popularity. They were followed
by other works of a corresponding description, which were also well
received. The publisher had his reward; we have every reason to believe
that Rowlandson enjoyed his fair share of these successful ventures;
and continued to furnish book-illustrations, steadily following up the
new branch he had discovered for the exercise of his abilities. Mr.
Ackermann's enterprise provided him ample occupation. These octavo
prints were produced on the same principle as the superior plates
after his _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of the Academy period: a neat and carefully
finished drawing of the original design was first prepared (these
studies were afterwards purchased by Mr. Ackermann), and Rowlandson
etched the outline sharply and clearly on the copper plate, an
impression from the 'bitten-in' outline was printed on drawing-paper,
and the artist put in his shadows, modelling of forms and sketchy
distance, with Indian ink, in the most delicate handling possible; the
shadows were then copied in aquatint on the outlined plate, sometimes
by the designer, but in most cases by an engraver who practised this
particular branch, which a few experts were able to manipulate with
considerable dexterity and nicety. Rowlandson next completed the
colouring of his own Indian ink shaded impression in delicate tints,
harmoniously selected; his sense of colour being of a refined order
as regarded the disposal of tender shades agreeable to the eye.
His aptitude in this respect is quite as remarkable as his ease of
delineation; and, if his outlines can be copied with any approach
to deceiving the eye of a connoisseur, an attempt to imitate his
colouring, simple as it remained in its characteristics, is tolerably
certain to betray the fraud.
The tinted impression, which was intentionally finished with greater
delicacy and elaboration than the artist generally displayed, served as
a copy for imitation, which was handed to Mr. Ackermann's trained staff
of colourists, the publisher finding constant employment for a number
of clever persons whom he had educated expressly for this skilled
employment. These artists had worked under his auspices and personal
supervision for years, until, by constant practice, and the pains which
were taken by the publisher to improve their abilities, they attained a
degree of perfection and neatness never arrived at before, and almost
beyond belief in the present day, when the system has fallen into
comparative disuse. The assistants did their best to reproduce the
effect of the original drawings, and the number of impressions required
to satisfy the public must have kept them constantly at work, and
occasionally jeopardised their high finish.
[Illustration]
There is an amazing contrast between the plates issued from the
Repository, worked out like elaborate water-colour drawings, in
subdued, well-balanced tints, with the utmost lightness and skill of
touch, and the lurid chromatic daubs which pass current to the present
day, as Rowlandson's caricatures were issued from Cheapside '_price one
shilling coloured_,' after a school of vulgarity to which the panorama
of the Lord Mayor's Show _at one penny_, with its four yards of florid
tenuity, is quite a refined work of art.
We are not inclined to offer uncharitable reflections on Rowlandson's
City publisher; the caricatures--excepting always certain rougher
specimens, loosely executed enormities after designs by some of the
amateurs of the period, which indubitably belong to the slip-shod
order--are fair enough in their way, when one is lucky enough to meet
with uncoloured copies; it is the bad taste of his customers, the
respectable dealer evidently stooped to flatter, with which we are
inclined to disagree, and we think justifiably; for although it was
very good of the gentleman in question to issue so many copies of
his plates, with a providential eye to the future, that impressions
are sufficiently numerous to this day, all print-buyers must deplore
the waste of staring colour expended in making his publications
abominable to the sight of modern purchasers, and ruinous to the fair
fame of the designer, by the uncompromising use of three positive
pigments, red, blue, and yellow, to which, with an occasional brown,
the colour-box seemed restricted, in most cases liberally plastered
over the etchings-figures, sky, buildings and background being
treated to the same smart hues in undiluted garishness, which utterly
confuses the mind as to the meritorious qualities of the subjects so
bespattered, and has the sinister effect, deplorable in itself, of
compelling persons of chaste dispositions to dread caricatures as being
on the surface something worse than scarlet abominations, fiendishly
aggravated with additional lurid iniquities of a depraving tendency.
We have introduced Rowlandson in his later relation to the arts, as
a skilful and popular contributor of book illustrations; we cannot
leave this portion of our subject without offering a cursory review of
his various labours in this capacity, since the wider circulation of
printed publications has made his name more familiar to the great world
than the finest masterpieces already alluded to, which seem doomed to
remain unknown and inaccessible to the bulk of the public.
[Illustration]
The first independent publication we have to notice was simply a
gathering of subjects, extending over three or four years, collected
in 1788, and issued as _Rowlandson's Imitations of Modern Drawings_,
folio; including imitations of the styles of Gainsborough, Wheatley,
Mortimer, Barrett, Gilpin, Bartolozzi, Zucchi, Cipriani, &c.
In 1786, Rowlandson supplied G. Kearsley, the publisher of those
well-known satirical effusions of Dr. Wolcot, _The Poems of Peter
Pindar_, with illustrations to the first volume of the quarto edition
of these familiar works. This publication was continued the next
year. In a burlesque strain, Rowlandson also came out with twenty
illustrations, the drawings suggested by Collings,[6] caricaturing
passages in Boswell's _Journal of a Tour in the Hebrides_, published
by E. Jackson, small folio (1786). Our artist further supplied certain
plates in parody of incidents in the _Sorrows of Werther_, also from
suggestions by Collings, who designed a capital series of drolleries
in travesty of passages literally extracted from Lord Chesterfield's
_Polite Letters_.
G. and J. Robinson, in 1790, published the results of a trip to
Brighton, which the artist had enjoyed in company with his friend, the
frequent companion of his wanderings and frolics, Henry Wigstead, Esq.,
the sitting magistrate at Bow Street--_An Excursion to Brighthelmstone
made in the year 1782_, by Henry Wigstead and Thomas Rowlandson, with
eight engravings by Thomas Rowlandson, oblong folio.
There also appeared, in this and the following years, a series of
_Miniature Groups and Scenes_, published by M. L., Brighthelmstone,
and H. Brookes, Coventry Street, London; and a series of _Sheets of
Picturesque Etchings_, published by S. W. Fores. Rowlandson also
furnished numerous book-plates, octavo, to the series of novels
published by I. Siebbald, Edinburgh; among the works thus illustrated
we must particularise the novels of Fielding and Smollett.
The succeeding year (1792) our artist also contributed illustrations,
in large size folding plates, designed after suggestions by Henry
Woodward, to a quarto edition of Smollett's Novels. _Cupid's Magic
Lantern_, with illustrations, etched by Rowlandson, also after designs
by Henry Woodward, was published in 1797.
_The Comforts of Bath_, and the folio _Views of London_, belong to
1798. The same year the name of W. Wigstead, Charing Cross, appears as
the publisher of the following works:--
_Annals of Horsemanship_, with seventeen copperplates by Henry Bunbury,
Esq. Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.
_The Academy for Grown Horsemen_, with twelve copperplates, by Henry
Bunbury, Esq. Engraved by Thomas Rowlandson.
_Love in Caricature_, with eleven plates by Thomas Rowlandson.
[Illustration]
The handsome and expensively got-up publications inaugurated by Mr.
Ackermann, began to occupy our artist in 1799. The first of this
well-executed series, with which Rowlandson was connected, was a set of
plates, accurately coloured in _fac-simile_ of the original drawings,
in square folio, described as,
_The Loyal Volunteers of London and Environs_, with eighty-seven
plates, designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson.
Martial ardour being the key-note this year, when foreign invasion
menaced our shores, Henry Angelo and Son, who were appointed
fencing-masters to the Light Horse Volunteers of London and
Westminster, collected a series of subjects which the artist had
prepared under their direction, and issued the results of their joint
ingenuity as a supplement to the elder Angelo's _Treatise on Fencing_,
under the title of, _Hungarian and Highland Broadsword Exercise_, with
twenty-four plates designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson, oblong
folio.
Another publication, issued by Ackermann in 1799, appeared as
_Delineations of Nautical Characters_, in ten plates by Thomas
Rowlandson.
In 1800, the results of an excursion to North and South Wales,
undertaken in concert by the author and artist, were given to the
public under the following description: _Remarks on a Tour to North and
South Wales in the year 1797_, by Henry Wigstead, with plates by Thomas
Rowlandson, Pugh, Howitt, &c. Published by W. Wigstead, Charing Cross.
Rowlandson also supplied some illustrations to _The Beauties of
Sterne_, a selection of choice passages from the works of that author.
A series of _Views in Cornwall, Dorset, &c._, appeared as a separate
publication in 1805. The artist contributed serious book-plates to an
edition of the _Sorrows of Werther_, in 1806. A smaller edition of
the witty _Annals of Horsemanship_ and _Academy for Grown Horsemen_
(portions of which are attributed to the pen of the convivial Captain
Grose, the well-known antiquary, author of _The Military Antiquities_,
etc.--the original design of the work with the illustrations belonged
to Henry Bunbury) was issued in a cheap form by Thomas Tegg in 1800,
the etchings being executed in a reduced form by Thomas Rowlandson, and
published under the title of _An Academy for Grown Horsemen and Annals
of Horsemanship, by Geoffry Gambado_, octavo. A collection of plates
portraying _The Miseries of Human Life_, consisting of fifty etchings
by Thomas Rowlandson, small folio, was published in a reduced form the
same year.
[Illustration]
The principal work, however, which appeared in 1808, was, and must
remain, a fitting instance of the enterprise and good taste of
Rudolph Ackermann, his liberal employment of artists whose abilities
were of the first order; while demonstrating the popularity of his
publications, which could guarantee the most considerable outlays, with
a successful return of the capital invested.
We refer to the splendid _Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature_,
with 105 illustrations by Pugin and Rowlandson, in three volumes,
quarto. A more extended notice of this valuable series is given in its
proper place in this volume, under the description of works for 1808;
although we believe the actual preparation of the plates extended over
some years.
We have also to notice:--
_The Caricature Magazine, or Hudibrastic Mirror_, published by Thomas
Tegg, and continued to 1810, 386 plates, in five volumes, oblong folio.
_The Art of Ingeniously Tormenting_, with illustrations by Rowlandson
and Woodward, octavo; published by Thomas Tegg, Cheapside, 1808.
_A Lecture on Heads_, by George Alexander Stevens, with twenty-five
illustrations by Rowlandson and Woodward, octavo, published by Thomas
Tegg, Cheapside, 1808.
_Chesterfield Travestie; or School for Modern Manners_, with ten
caricatures engraved by Rowlandson from drawings by H. Woodward (who
supplied the letterpress), duodecimo, was also published by Thomas
Tegg, Cheapside. 1808.
[Illustration]
In 1809, appeared numerous book-plates supplied by the artist to
publishers. Thomas Tegg issued an edition of _Sterne's Sentimental
Journey_, and _The Beauties of Sterne_, in a separate volume; both
_embellished with caricatures by T. Rowlandson_. This gentleman
also published an edition of _The Surprising Adventures of the
renowned Baron Munchausen_, with numerous original engravings by
Thomas Rowlandson; _The Annals of Sporting by Caleb Quizem_, with
illustrations by Rowlandson and Woodward; _Advice to Sportsmen,
selected from the Notes of Marmaduke Markwell_; with sixteen
illustrations by Rowlandson; _The Trial of the Duke of York_, with
Rowlandson's collected caricatures on the subject, in two volumes;
_Investigation of the Charges brought against H.R.H. the Duke of York,
&c._, with fourteen portraits by Rowlandson, two volumes; and Butler's
_Hudibras_, with five illustrations by William Hogarth, engraved by
Thomas Rowlandson.
Beresford's _Antidote to the Miseries of Human Life_, octavo, is also
advertised in 1809.
_The Pleasures of Human Life_, by Hilari Benevolus & Co., with five
plates by Thomas Rowlandson, &c., was published by Longmans, 1809.
It was in 1809 that Ackermann projected his _Poetical Magazine_, royal
octavo, which, it was arranged, should appear in consecutive monthly
parts, as a means of affording his friend, the artist, substantial
and progressive employment. The generous thought which prompted
this enterprise was fittingly rewarded by the successful reception
this venture secured at the hands of the public, and the patrons of
Ackermann's 'Repository of Arts.' _The Poetical Magazine_ was quite
a feature amongst novel publications; the famous plates supplied by
Rowlandson (two monthly), and the verses felicitously written up to
the caricaturist's designs by William Coombe, under the title of _The
Schoolmasters' Tour_, and introducing the highly popular _Doctor
Syntax_, formed the only important contributions to the Magazine, which
came to a conclusion (at the fourth volume), with the end of the first
_Picturesque Tour_.
The success which attended the appearance of the familiar _Tour_ was
altogether beyond the expectations of either publisher, artist, or
author. The etchings on the plates to _The Poetical Magazine_ were
worked fairly away and renewed. In 1812, _The Tour of Doctor Syntax in
Search of the Picturesque_, with thirty-one illustrations by Thomas
Rowlandson, was published in a separate form in royal octavo, a fresh
set of the much-admired plates, with but the slightest variations,
being prepared expressly, and these in turn proved insufficient to
supply the number of copies demanded by the delighted public. The
_Tour_ had a still larger success in its independent form, and several
editions appeared in one season; the request continued for years, and
was sufficiently encouraging to induce the projectors to follow it up
with a new series, _The Second Tour of Doctor Syntax, in Search of
Consolation_, with twenty-four illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson,
which also appeared in monthly parts, and was issued in a collected
form in one volume, royal octavo, in 1820. A third tour, in _Search of
a Wife_, was ventured in 1822, but this was evidently intended to be
the final sequel, as the hero, 'Doctor Syntax,' is removed from life's
scene at the close.
Returning to Rowlandson's successive contributions of
book-illustrations, we find a satirical work, _Munchausen at Walcheren_
issued in 1811; and a _Tale of the Castle_ (Dublin), published
by Stockdale in 1812, as _Petticoat Loose, a Fragmentary Poem_,
illustrated with four plates by Thomas Rowlandson, quarto.
The artist also issued a series of _Views of Cornwall_ in the form of
an independent volume the same year.
Mr. Ackermann had introduced, some years before, an illustrated
Miscellany to his subscribers, which ran a long and highly successful
career, under the title, borrowed from the circumstances of its
publication, of _Ackermann's Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashion,
and Manufactures_.
[Illustration]
In the pages of this admirable magazine were given many continuous
contributions of a valuable and interesting character, the contents
being as diversified as the description of the undertaking. Among
the serials were numerous essays of merit, which, in the projector's
opinion, were entitled to the distinction of separate publication,
and, at intervals, the discriminating proprietor of the _Repository_
selected various series of articles by his best qualified and most
respected colleagues in the work, and re-issued their contributions,
with the enhanced attraction of fresh pictorial embellishments, as
separate publications. In this manner a succession of _Letters from
Italy_, which had appeared in the _Repository_, between 1809 and 1813,
furnished by Lewis Engelbach (who supplied reviews of music; it has
been said his criticisms may be usefully studied by the most successful
living contributors to the press), were republished in 1815 in one
volume, royal octavo, as _Letters from Naples and the Campana Felice_,
with seventeen illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson.
Another deserving work, published by R. Ackermann, in the same
finished style, with coloured engravings in aquatint, delicately
completed by hand to resemble water-colour drawings, as were the major
part of the illustrations to this series, appeared under the title of
_Poetical Sketches of Scarborough_, with twenty-one illustrations by J.
Green; etched by Thomas Rowlandson, 1813.
In 1815 was published The _Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome_, with
fifteen illustrations by Thomas Rowlandson, royal octavo, printed for
Patrick Martin, 198 Oxford Street. This work is written in Hudibrastic
metre, by 'An Officer' in imitation of the flowing lines supplied by
Coombe to the _Tours of Doctor Syntax_. Another volume (1815 and 1816)
was published by Thomas Tegg, Cheapside, also composed after the model
of the same easy versification, under the description of _The Grand
Master, or Adventures of Qui Hi in Hindostan, a Hudibrastic poem in
eight cantos, by Quiz_, illustrated with twenty-eight engravings by
Thomas Rowlandson.
[Illustration]
The principal triumph of our artist's later years appeared in 1815
and 1816, Rowlandson inventing the subjects, and Coombe supplying the
descriptive versification, as was their usual method of proceeding in
the entire succession of publications, undertaken under this artistic
and literary co-partnership, and issued by R. Ackermann.
We refer to the _Dance of Death_, which had first been offered the
public in monthly parts under the old and highly successful system,
between 1814 and 1816. This production, which repays the most careful
consideration, received a flattering reception, and, in spite of the
grim nature of the subject, enjoyed surprising popularity, and added
considerably to the reputation of those concerned in its appearance.
We have no hesitation in recording our impression that the ingenuity
and invention displayed in the seventy-two plates illustrative
of the _Dance of Death_ are considerably in advance, in point of
invention, of the pictures supplied to its more genial and popular
rival _Doctor Syntax_. Both artist and author had arrived at a period
of mature experience, which qualified and disposed them to bring
their finest faculties to the treatment of this melodramatic theme,
in which they must have discovered morbid fascinations; since it has
enabled them to rise above their average efforts. As we have noticed,
although the conception is monumental, not to say sepulchral, in its
characteristics, and on occasions, ghastly in its humour, the result
is a masterpiece to the memories of Rowlandson and Coombe; the fires
of their early inspirations were rekindled from their decline; and
the _Dance of Death_ has always impressed us as the last flicker of
expiring genius; a fitting memorial of the vast and almost forgotten
faculties of the projectors.
A fuller account of this impressive and truly remarkable work, will
be found under the year 1810, where we have endeavoured to do justice
to the exceptional qualities of a performance which, in our modest
conviction, surpasses any previous treatment of the same subject.
In 1816 Rowlandson commenced a series of charming little pictures
designed in outline, avowedly intended as an assistance to
landscape-artists in the direction of suggesting, and supplying
animated groups of figures, suitable for introduction into drawings.
The etchings were executed with exceptional neatness, ease, and spirit,
and the entire collection is highly interesting; it appeared under
the title of _The World in Miniature, figure subjects for Landscapes,
Groups, and Views_, and was published by Mr. Ackermann at 'The
Repository.' A series of a similar description was commenced under the
same designation by Rowlandson in 1821, and finished by W. H. Pyne in
1826; the set was somewhat diffusive, if it extended to 637 parts, as
we are told.
Our artist's illustrations to the _Beauties of Tom Brown_ belong to
1809.
Rowlandson also contributed a frontispiece to another of Tegg's
publications in 1816, _The Relics of a Saint, by Ferdinand Farquhar_.
[Illustration]
Rowlandson found a congenial exercise for his skill, taste, and
mirth-imparting qualities in the illustration of Oliver Goldsmith's
_Vicar of Wakefield_, in 1817, when the famous tale re-appeared,
embellished with twenty-four designs by the artist. Mr. Ackermann
was induced to republish this delightful story as a vehicle for the
display of the delicate humoristic, and more refined qualifications
of the caricaturist (who, by the way, had almost ceased to deserve
this epithet). Nothing could be more artless than the pathos of this
fiction, its simple humour is ever fresh, and Rowlandson has executed
his portion of the undertaking in a congenial spirit, indeed the happy
impulses of the author seem spontaneously embodied in the picturesque
designs.
The success of the _Dance of Death_ was so considerable that the
publisher endeavoured to share its popularity with a successor. The
two volumes constituting the first work were, however, executed in a
superior manner; and more pains were taken to bring the plates to the
utmost perfection, as reproductions of the original drawings, than was
the case with later publications. _The Dance of Life_, illustrated
with twenty-eight coloured engravings by Thomas Rowlandson, published
by R. Ackermann, royal octavo, appeared in 1817, and although fairly
executed, neither the conceptions of Rowlandson, nor the verses of
Coombe, rose above the commonplace; it is evident that the sentiment
which had inspired their gifted faculties in the former subject found
no revival in the present volume, which is somewhat disappointing after
the talent which is manifested in its predecessor.
A pendant to the _Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome_ was issued in
1818 as _The Adventures of Johnny Newcome in the Navy_, a poem in four
cantos, with sixteen plates by Rowlandson from the author's designs,
by Alfred Burton, published by Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers'
Hall Court, Ludgate Hill. More attention was paid to the artistic
preparation of the succeeding portion of _The Second Tour of Doctor
Syntax in Search of Consolation_, with twenty-four illustrations by
Thomas Rowlandson, royal octavo, which Mr. Ackermann introduced to the
public in a collected form as the companion to the popular first volume
in 1820.
Rowlandson also furnished illustrations to certain pamphlets or
chapbooks in 1819; we may particularise one under the title of _Who
killed Cock Robin?_--a tract on the Manchester Massacre, published by
John Cahnac. We have also to notice his contribution to a chapbook
which appeared the same year, as, _Female Intrepidity, or the Heroic
Maiden_.
The same year appeared _Rowlandson's Characteristic Sketches of the
Lower Orders; intended as a Companion to the New Picture of London_
containing fifty-four coloured plates, printed by S. Leigh, 18 Strand,
1820.
[Illustration]
Another contribution, _A Tour in the South of France_, drawn from
the excellent serial publication, 'Ackermann's Repository of Arts,
Literature, Fashion, and Manufactures,' originally supplied to its
pages in instalments between the years 1817 and 1820, was republished
in a completed form in 1821, with additional attractions, in the way of
fresh embellishments, by the unflagging hand of our artist, under the
title of _A Journal of Sentimental Travels in the Southern Provinces of
France_, illustrated with eighteen coloured engravings from designs by
Thomas Rowlandson, royal octavo, published by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand.
A French version of 'Doctor Syntax's Tour in Search of the
Picturesque,' _Le Don Quichotte Romantique, ou Voyage du Docteur
Syntaxe à la Recherche du Pittoresque et du Romantique_, also appeared
in Paris this year, with twenty-eight illustrations, drawn on stone,
after the original designs of Rowlandson, by Malapeau, lithographed by
G. Engelmann.
The final complement of 'The Tours,' prepared under the same auspices
as the earlier peregrinations, reached completion as an additional
volume in 1822, and the monthly instalments were then reissued in a
collected form to join the two predecessors as _The Third Tour of
Doctor Syntax in Search of a Wife_, with twenty-five illustrations by
Thomas Rowlandson, royal octavo, published by R. Ackermann.
A further instance of the universal popularity enjoyed by _The First
Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque_ was afforded,
in 1822, by the appearance of an edition translated into German and
freely adapted as _Die Reise des Doktor Syntax um das Malerische au
Frusuchen_ with Rowlandson's famous illustrations imitated on stone and
lithographed by F. E. Rademacher, Berlin.
The interest which it was found, on experience, still surrounded
the grotesque prototype _Dr. Syntax_, induced the energetic
projectors--publisher, artist, and author--under their old,
well-defined relations, to venture on a farther extension of the
familiar framework, and a fresh volume, which had, like the preceding
publications, found its way to the public in monthly instalments, was
inaugurated in 1822 under the description of _The History of Johnny
Quæ Genus: The Little Foundling of the late Doctor Syntax--a poem by
the author of The Three Tours_ (William Coombe)--embellished with
twenty-four coloured engravings by Thomas Rowlandson.
[Illustration]
The same year our artist issued another distinct volume of landscape
subjects of his execution under the title of _Rowlandson's Sketches
from Nature_; a collection of seventeen plates, drawn and etched by the
artist and aquatinted by Stradler. _Crimes of the Clergy_, an octavo
volume, with two plates by our artist, also appeared in 1822.
As a further proof that the numerous editions in royal octavo of the
illustrious schoolmaster's wanderings were insufficient to satisfy the
requirements of his patrons, Mr. Ackermann offered the public a fresh
copy, in three volumes 16mo. of _The Three Tours of Dr. Syntax, Pocket
Edition_, with all Rowlandson's plates, executed on a smaller scale to
suit the convenience of enthusiasts, who might require to carry the
volumes about with them ready for immediate reference, or for perusal
on their travels and at odd moments, if such an opportunity should be
in request.
In 1825 Charles Molloy Westmacott, an intimate friend of the
caricaturist, in whose company we learn he visited Paris, thought
proper to edit a publication under his pseudonym of 'Bernard
Blackmantle,' a collection of whimsical extracts from the press,
which had appeared in print in the previous season. The description
of his production is as follows: _The Spirit of the Public Journals
for the year 1824, with Explanatory Notes_. Illustrations on wood
by T. Rowlandson, R. and G. Cruikshank, Lane, and Findlay. London;
published by Sherwood, Jones, and Co., Paternoster Row, 1825. Our
artist contributed eleven highly humorous cuts to this publication, his
drawings being engraved on wood--a novel process as far as the designs
usually supplied by Rowlandson are concerned.
A notable plate was furnished by the caricaturist in 1825 to _The
English Spy_, a work also produced under the auspices of 'Bernard
Blackmantle,' after the description of the better-known _Life in
London_. The major part of the plates are due to the hand of Robert
Cruikshank. Rowlandson's name is given on the title-page as having
contributed a portion of the illustrations on wood, but the only
example of his skill we have been able to identify is an adaptation of
his drawing (now the property of Mr. Capron), _The Life School at the
Royal Academy_, which he originally presented to his old friend John
Thomas Smith, of the British Museum. Plate 32.--_R. A--ys of Genius
Reflecting on the True Line of Beauty at the Life Academy, Somerset
House_, by Thomas Rowlandson; and this illustration is undeniably the
most interesting to be found in the entire contents of the two octavo
volumes of which Mr. Westmacott's _English Spy_ is composed; further
particulars of this subject are given under the year 1825.
[Illustration]
After the caricaturist's death in 1827 the admirable publications,
of which his coloured plates formed the principal attractions, were
discontinued; the taste of the public had changed. Wood blocks and
steel plates came into fashion. Cheap annuals illustrated with
woodcuts came into favour for a season, until the appearance of the
more elaborately prepared 'Gift Books,' with fine steel engravings,
'Keepsakes,' 'Gems,' &c., subsequently took their place. The folios of
Mr. Ackermann were still sufficiently rich in studies by Rowlandson to
furnish the framework for a fresh publication. A choice was made from
the large collection of original drawings, published and unpublished,
which still remained, after the artist's decease, in the possession of
the indefatigable proprietor of the 'Repository'; and these sketches,
which of necessity, for the most part, are assignable to Rowlandson's
declining period, when his drawings became looser in execution and
less picturesque in point of subject, were selected as the materials
for a new venture, with a departure from the old popular style of
reproduction in facsimile of the artist's pictures coloured by hand.
The subjects culled from Mr. Ackermann's portfolios were redrawn
on a reduced scale, either as a whole, or striking portions of
caricatures, and prominent figures or groups were adapted, transferred
to wood-blocks, and put into the hands of an engraver. In cutting
the designs a considerable amount of the original spirit, with the
individuality of execution peculiar to the master, have unfortunately
been sacrificed; the engravings are heavy and poor; however, they offer
a rough idea of the nature of the studies which happened to remain
in the hands of the publisher, and some interest attaches to this
circumstance, as the major part of these designs have never been issued
on copper.
Mr. W. H. Harrison was engaged to write up to the pictorial sketches,
and he has constructed various small fictions founded on the
suggestions offered by the engravings; but the entire work is somewhat
clumsy in contrivance, both as respects the illustrations and the
literary setting intended to assist their interest in the eyes of the
public; the editor's inventions are neither original nor brilliant.
The title of the annual produced on this compound principle was _The
Humourist, a Companion for the Christmas Fireside, embellished with
fifty engravings, exclusive of numerous vignettes after designs by the
late Thomas Rowlandson_: published by R. Ackermann, 96 Strand, and
sold by R. Ackermann, junior, 191 Regent Street, 1831. _The Humourist_
contained sixty-seven illustrations in all; the titles of these, and a
brief description of the various subjects, will be found at the close
of the present volume, under the year 1831.
* * * * *
Although Rowlandson was so well known as an artist, no fitting
memorials of his career are extant; and while, as we have related, the
task of discovering a collection of works by the artist, worthy of
illustrating his exceptional abilities, is surrounded by unforeseen
difficulties, the operation of culling personal traits, or records
of the life and adventures of the caricaturist, demands even greater
extensions of patience. Nothing short of sincere appreciation for the
vast talents of the man, and of a lasting conviction of the original
qualities of his works, could have encouraged the writer to prolong his
researches, the chances in this case of alighting on any discoveries of
note being so problematical.
The person of Rowlandson was familiarly recognised amongst his
contemporaries from his youth, when he was first admitted as a
student at the schools of the Royal Academy (about 1770), through his
diversified fortunes, till his death, which occurred on April 22, 1827.
His figure, we learn, was large, well set-up, muscular, and above the
average height--in fact, his person was a noticeable one; his features
were regular and defined, his eye remarkably full and fearless, his
glance being described as penetrating, and suggestive of command;
his mouth and chin expressed firmness and resolution; the general
impression conveyed to a stranger by his countenance, which was
undeniably fine and striking in its characteristics, was that of the
inflexibility of the owner.
[Illustration: SMITHFIELD SHARPERS; OR THE COUNTRYMAN DEFRAUDED.
Old Trusty, with his Town-made Friends,
To gentle sleep himself commends,
With Tray upon his knees;
Whilst Tom, his son, all eager, gaping,
Expects each moment he'll be scraping
The treasure up he sees.
Meanwhile the Harpy Tribe are plotting,
By forcing liquor, winking, nodding,
To cheat the youth unlearn'd;
Who, to his cost, will quickly find
Nor watch, nor money, left behind,
And Friends to Sharpers turn'd.]
Two or three portraits of the caricaturist are traceable, besides
numerous burlesque transfers of his own effigy to his imaginary
personages. In common with Cruikshank, Thackeray, and many other
humorists of the brush and etching-needle, he was prone to introduce
the presentment of his own lineaments in whimsical juxtapositions. The
most generally recognised likeness, from which a separate plate has
been published by Mr. Parker, occurs in a clever eccentric drawing,
exhibited by the artist at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1787, under
the title of _Countrymen and Sharpers_ (No. 555).
This subject was subsequently engraved by J. K. Sherwin, whose portrait
also figures therein, in the person of the pigeon, while Rowlandson
has chosen to represent himself as the leading sharper, he who, with
blustering front, is fleecing the simple youth at cards, in defiance
of his well-accepted reputation for rigid integrity; for although the
gaming table long held the caricaturist an enslaved votary, ready to
make the most reckless sacrifices to tempt the fickle favours of the
gambler's fortune, it is recorded by those of his acquaintances who
have mentioned this disastrous failing (which by the way he shared
with all the wealthy, distinguished, and witty celebrities of his
day), and deplored the havoc it made with his means, and professional
pursuits, that his sense of honour was ever of the keenest, his word
was always regarded as sufficient security, and he possessed a delicacy
of feeling, and a sense of independence, which would not allow him to
remain under a debt or an obligation.
At the time Rowlandson sent his drawing of _Countrymen and Sharpers_[7]
for exhibition, he was 31 years of age, and according to the portrait,
looks manhood personified, with a fine comely figure, and a face that
imprints itself on the recollection, his hair in a profusion of wavy
tresses, worn long, and 'clubbed' as was the fashion of the period. His
bold and piercing eyes set under massive and somewhat prominent brows.
The next attributed portrait belongs to 1799, when Rowlandson was 43
years of age. In the design, _An Artist travelling in Wales_, the
result of a journey he made with his friend, the convivial Henry
Wigstead, he has represented himself, with a due allowance for
burlesque, looking older than his years; the long hair is still there,
but its curls are thinned, time and a struggle with seasons less rosy
than his youth of many fortunes, are telling on the outward man, but
the brows, eyes, mouth and chin have diminished nothing of their
resolute characteristics--indeed, they are more marked--and the strong
nervous figure is beginning to look gaunt.
_The Chamber of Genius_ appeared in 1812 with the appropriate
quotation:--
Want is the scorn of every wealthy fool;
And genius in rags is turned to ridicule.--Juv. _Sat._
The head of the caricaturist is strongly defined on the shoulders of
the gifted occupant of a garret, and the likeness is just what might
be supposed from the countenance, as given in 1787, viewed through the
intervening quarter of a century of struggles, and disenchantments,
when cares of the hour, and incidental anxieties, touching provision
for the future, had commenced to take the place of the artist's
original careless hardihood.
The last portrait to which we shall at present refer is by another
hand; and was sketched when the health of the caricaturist was a grave
source of apprehension, since we learn that during the last two years
of his life he was a severe sufferer. It represents the figure of a
large and powerful-looking old gentleman, of impressive presence; the
main characteristics, and the marked profile have gathered force with
increasing years, the brows are even firmer, and the features more
defined; this _croquis_ of the veteran was drawn by his old friend,
and erst fellow-pupil, John Thomas Smith, the keeper of the drawings
and prints in the British Museum, and the study was taken while the
caricaturist was looking over some prints, on one of his visits to the
treasures in his friend's department. The sketcher, who has written the
circumstances under which it was taken, below the portrait, has given
Rowlandson's age at seventy,--within a year, in fact, of his death.
The caricaturist's flowing locks are considerably shorn by the hand
of the inevitable mower, and his penetrating eyes do not disdain the
assistance afforded by a pair of huge tortoiseshell-rimmed spectacles,
in which they are framed; but as far as the visible flight of time
goes, regarding the outward man, he might be assumed to possess powers
of vitality sufficient to carry him over another score years.
If our memory does not deceive us, a sketch of the caricaturist's
figure, from the life, and drawn in chalks, was exhibited some time ago
at Bethnal Green, in the Loan Collection, formed under the auspices of
the Science and Art Department.
* * * * *
We learn that our artist, who is perhaps the most popularly recognised
practitioner of the caricature branch, was born in the Old Jewry, in
July 1756, that is to say, just a year before his remarkable compeer
James Gillray. The members of the Rowlandson family, according to
the little we can trace of their personal history, seem to have been
highly respectable people of the middle class in life. The name is not
of common occurrence. There is a tract relating certain misfortunes
which attended two bearers of this cognomen; a pious and worthy couple
who in the seventeenth century went evangelising to New England,
where they suffered incredible persecutions, and escaped all sorts
of dismal tortures amongst the aboriginal Indians, in whose hands
they had the mischance to fall; the succession of hardships which
they encountered, and their final miraculous deliverance, are duly
recorded for the encouragement of the faithful. The narrative, which
is simple and circumstantial, forms an item of 'improving reading'
not without its interest in the present age. There is nothing to
prove the relationship of this faithful and much-enduring pair to
our caricaturist, beyond the circumstance of the similarity of name.
Rowlandson the elder was assuredly at one time a man of fair substance,
as we are informed--'some say a city merchant,' but his disposition,
like that of his son, seems to have been tinctured with recklessness.
Mention is made of an uncle Thomas Rowlandson, who was godfather
to the subject of our notice; also, as far as we can discover,
connected with mercantile pursuits. This relationship was destined to
serve the caricaturist in good stead, if he had only exercised the
commonest prudence in husbanding the resources which he derived from
this connection. We discover that, before Rowlandson had arrived at
man's estate, his chances of inheriting a provision to help him on
his way, together with the prospect of any future support, so far as
the paternal resources were concerned, had melted away; the elder
Rowlandson's 'speculative turn' had taken a sinister bent, considerable
sums had been sunk, and still more portentous liabilities had been
incurred, 'by experimenting on various branches of manufacture,' which
were attempted on too extensive a scale for the means at his command;
and, his resources becoming exhausted, before the fruition of his
schemes, pecuniary embarrassments involved his career, and he failed
to realise the considerable fortune which his sanguine temperament
had anticipated. The natural talents of the son, and the professional
training which had cultivated his gifts, were the only contributions
he received, on attaining manhood, towards his future maintenance, as
far as the help he could derive from his father was concerned. Other
adventitious aids came to the artist's assistance, indeed, in spite of
the untoward direction which the previous prosperity of the elder had
taken, Rowlandson was to a large degree the spoiled child of fortune
throughout his early career.
[Illustration: HOW TO TREAT A REFRACTORY MEMBER.]
We are not informed whether the paternal estate was restored to
solvency. Among the various 'valuable legacies' which, it is related,
fell to the caricaturist's share (only to be scattered broadcast), it
is very possible that, in some sort, an inheritance from his father
formed part of these unexpected 'good gifts.' It seems, although we
have no direct records of the remaining relatives, that Rowlandson had
a sister, since we learn that his brother-in-law was Howitt, famous
as an artist for his delineation of animals, for his spirited hunting
subjects, being eminent as a sportsman, rider, and angler; and, like
the caricaturist, somewhat of a spoiled child--a wayward genius--of a
congenial soul, and vivacious impulses, a trifle too given to yield to
careless convivial company, or the allurements which the hour might
hold forth, oblivious of sober consequences to follow.
Thomas Rowlandson, the uncle, had married a certain Mademoiselle
Chattelier, who was, it is evident, a lady with some command of wealth;
and from the partiality and indulgence of this aunt, our artist, we are
told, 'derived that assistance which his father's reverse of fortune
had withheld.'
Another reference to the family name further occurs amongst the
announcements of marriages for September 1800 (_Gentleman's Magazine_,
vol. 70, p. 898), where we find that Thomas Rowlandson, Esq., of
Watling Street, espoused Miss Stuart, daughter of George Stuart, Esq.,
of the Grove, Camberwell, Surrey. It is obvious that Rowlandson senior
intended to give his son a sound training. As a school-boy, the future
celebrity wandered into the precincts of that Soho district to which he
afterwards clung in his varying fortunes with the persistence developed
by habit.
[Illustration]
The caricaturist began to draw his first instalments from the fount of
knowledge at the scholastic symposium of Doctor Barvis in Soho Square,
'at that time, and subsequently, an academy of some celebrity.' We are
told this establishment was kept by Doctor Barrow when young Rowlandson
was pursuing his studies. The respectability of the school, and its
soundness as an educational institution, is satisfactorily demonstrated
to our mind from the circumstance that the great Edmund Burke had
elected to confide his beloved son, with whose training, it is well
known, the philosopher took especial pains, to the charge of Doctor
Barrow; and Richard Burke, the gentle gifted youth whose untimely death
hastened the decease of his patriotic father, was a school-fellow
of our artist. J. G. Holman, who was destined to acquire reputation
as a dramatic writer and performer, was another school-fellow. It
appears that, within the walls of this academy, Rowlandson made
the acquaintance of John Bannister, whose inimitable talents were
afterwards to delight the town, and whose name is a lasting ornament to
the histrionic profession; it was, further, in Soho Square that young
Rowlandson and young Angelo, the son of the well-known Henry Angelo
(one of the best recognised and most respected foreigners domiciled in
London of his day), fencing-master to the Royal Family, became fast and
firm friends. The intimacy existing between this worthy trio, dating
from these early days, continued steadfastly through life. All these
lads were, in different degrees, enthusiasts of the graphic art; Angelo
and Bannister had strong predilections for the arts, and both drew as
amateurs in their subsequent careers, although, with Rowlandson, they
originally meditated following up the artist's profession seriously.
As to our friend Rolley, like all beginners gifted with the pictorial
vein, he could make sketches intuitively before he had learnt to
do anything else, as seems the rule with youths who possess the
artistic faculty and an imaginative temperament; his powers of fancy
directed his hand at a precociously juvenile age to the practice of
exercising his abilities with pencil and pen. 'From the early period
of his childhood,' it is recorded, 'Rowlandson gave presage of his
future talent;' he could make sketches before he learned to write,
and, according to the usual course, 'he drew humorous characters of
his master and many of his scholars, before he was ten years old. The
margins of his school-books were covered with these his handiworks.'
Rowlandson's genius was of the rapid order, his powers were matured
before the average of students have sounded the direction of their
inclinations. Young Henry Angelo left Doctor Barrow's and Soho Square,
for Eton, while Bannister and Rowlandson quitted the seminary of polite
learning to follow the arts at the Schools of the Royal Academy; here
our artist made rapid strides, and gave convincing proofs of his
ability, dexterity, and quickness of parts, during the short interval
his name was entered as a probationer.
[Illustration]
In his sixteenth year, somewhere about 1771, Rowlandson had the
advantage of being sent to Paris to continue his education; we
learn that he 'spoke French like a native.' It was his aunt, _née_
Mademoiselle Chattelier, residing in the French metropolis, a widow
with what would have then been considered, in that capital, a handsome
fortune, who invited her hopeful nephew over to the very centre of
gaiety, dissipation, and luxurious refinement--Paris in the latter
days of Louis the Fifteenth's reign being a very Capua for a youth of
light and picturesque disposition such as our artist possessed. The
impulse for purposeless frivolities, so deleteriously nourished amidst
the gaieties of Parisian life, seems to have been kept in tolerable
subjection by his earnest intentions to work hard at his adopted
profession, which certainly must have sustained Master Rolley during
his earlier residence on the Continent, until the cup of pleasure was
raised to his lips by an unexpected accession of means. The student
did a wonderful deal of real solid work and thoroughly steadfast
application, before, like Moreland, he allowed himself to be whirled
into the eddy of fashionable distractions; in Paris he was inscribed
as a student in one of the drawing-academies there, and his natural
abilities, aided by the excellence of the methods practised around
him, to which his gifts moulded themselves quite naturally, enabled the
probationer to make rapid advances in the study of the human figure,
and laid the foundation for his future excellences. During his first
sojourn, which lasted for nearly two years, Rowlandson became a perfect
French buck, with a decided leaning, however, towards the fine-art
section of the condition, and a pride in his professional calling; he
learned to draw with fidelity to nature, with the graceful ease, and
_abandon_, and the sparkle of style which marks French pictorial art of
the period immediately antecedent to the reign of Louis the Sixteenth,
the very ideal of luxury and refinement. It is related that, during
his abode in Paris, 'he occasionally permitted his satiric talents the
indulgence of portraying the characteristics of that fantastic people,
whose _outré_ habits perhaps scarcely demanded the exaggerations of
caricature.'
[Illustration]
Rowlandson returned to London for a season; and, while still a youth in
years, his studies at the Academy were resumed; his progress was now
so marked that he was set up as a friendly rival to Mortimer, another
talented student, who had won the admiration of professors and pupils
alike, by his skilful drawings after the nude figure. Our artist seems
to have been highly popular with the two sections of academicians
and students; the former appreciated his masterly endowments, the
latter were won by his whimsicalities, his spirit of mischief, and the
marvellous gift he possessed of turning every situation to comical
account in the production of exhaustless graphic satires, which seemed
to flow from his pen of their own sweet wilfulness.
John Bannister, who, as we have seen, had evinced an equal predilection
for the graphic art, with powers, however, of lesser brilliancy, was
then studying in the antique school, their old friendship was renewed,
and a fresh alliance for fun and frolic was straightway entered into.
These hopeful aspirants were a great acquisition to the mirth of the
schools, but both these eccentric geniuses must have sorely tried the
patience of their venerated pastors and masters. The nature of their
drolleries, which were incessant, is exposed in an extract from the
_Reminiscences_ of Henry Angelo, who formed the third person of this
waggish trio.
'At the period when Wilson held the appointment of Librarian to the
Royal Academy, the students were accustomed to assemble in the library;
Bannister and Rowlandson were students, and both being sprightly
wights, Wilson kept a watchful eye upon their pranks. The one was apt
to engage the attention of his fellow-disciples by caricaturing the
surly librarian, never forgetting to exaggerate his mulberry nose;
whilst the other, born to figure in the histrionic art, a mimic by
nature, used to divert them, in his turn, by playing off the irritable
'Old Dick.' Michael Moser was keeper at Somerset House while Bannister
and Rowlandson were students of the Royal Academy, at which period
the drawing-school was held in a part of the old palace, Somerset
House, just behind the site of the present institution. Moser, in
virtue of his office as keeper, had apartments there, which included
accommodations for a housekeeper, and other female domestics.
'Bannister and Rowlandson, as before observed, were prankish youths.
The latter once gave great offence by carrying a pea-shooter into the
life academy, and, whilst old Moser was adjusting the female model, and
had just directed her contour, Rowlandson let fly a pea, which, making
her start, she threw herself entirely out of position, and interrupted
the gravity of the study for the whole evening. For this offence,
Master Rowlandson went near getting himself expelled.
'Bannister, who at this time drew in the plaster academy, not having
gained the step that admitted to the drawing from the life, used to
amuse Moser with his mimicry, and he was, indeed, a pet of the worthy
keeper.
[Illustration]
'One evening, observing that the student had vacated his seat at his
desk, the keeper went to seek him, and, hearing an unusual giggling and
confusion in the basement storey he descended to learn the cause; when
he discovered the young artist romping with the servant-maids.
'What are you doing, sir, hey?' inquired the keeper, taking him gently
by the ear; 'why are you not at the _cast_? You are an idler, sir.'
Bannister met his reproof with an arch smile, and whispered, 'No, kind
sir, I only came down to study from the _life_!'
In dealing with this part of the subject, every scrap of information
has its interest, the resources in this direction being unfortunately
most restricted. The task of writing on Gillray, and that within
the lifetime of the subject, was likened to the toil 'of bondsmen
commanded to make bricks without straw,' a comparison with which we
have a lively sympathy, as we have realised to the fullest extent
the difficulties which surrounded that undertaking. The obstacles to
be surmounted in the instance of the first caricaturist are found to
be rather more vexatious in the case of the companion volume, taken
up under similar auspices, to elucidate the works of Rowlandson,
and to trace the artist's career as far as lies within the writer's
capabilities. Sixty years ago it was declared while treating of the
first-named genius, in reference to contemporaneous indifference: 'It
is a scandal upon all the cold-hearted scribblers in the land to allow
such a genius as Gillray to go to the grave unnoticed; and a burning
shame that so many of his works should have become ambiguous for want
of a commentator. The political squibs have lost half of their point
for want of a glossary, and many of the humorous traits of private
life, so characteristic of men and manners, are becoming oblivious to
ninety-nine hundredths of those who perambulate the streets of this
mighty town.' This remark, so appropriately applied to Gillray (before
Thomas Wright, and successive elucidators, had contributed to render
the reading of these pictorial fables fairly clear, and the solutions
easy of access), is equally striking as respects its undoubted truth in
its application to Rowlandson--in his instance the pioneering remained
to be accomplished--although his works are less complex in themselves,
a description of them has hitherto proved too perplexing an attempt,
since, how were the subjects to be collected?
We feel a glow of gratitude to that worthiest old authority, _The
Gentleman's Magazine_, which contained a capital obituary notice on the
caricaturist's decease, April 22, 1827, written by 'one who had known
him for more than forty years;' this article has been copied literally
in all subsequent notices of Rowlandson.
[Illustration]
W. H. Pyne, the artist, who, under a pseudonym as _Ephraim Hardcastle_,
conducted the earliest of English fine-art reviews, _The Somerset House
Gazette_, 1824, was one of the intimates of the caricaturist, and he
has left slight allusions to Rowlandson, both in his _Gazette_ and in
another publication of his enterprising, _Wine and Walnuts, or After
Dinner Chat_, by Ephraim Hardcastle, 1823.
John Thomas Smith, as we have shown elsewhere, was on terms of personal
friendship with Rowlandson throughout his life; but strangely enough,
in his Nollekens and his Times, and his second volume, _Memoirs of
several Contemporary Artists from the time of Roubiliac, Hogarth and
Reynolds, to that of Fuseli, Flaxman, and Blake_, no mention is made
of his much-esteemed associate. A passing allusion to his 'friend and
fellow-pupil' Rowlandson, occurs in 'Antiquity' Smith's _Book for a
Rainy Day_.
Henry Angelo, the early schoolfellow and constant comrade of our
artist, a gentleman of varied accomplishments, obliged the reading
public with his _Reminiscences_ in 1830, a chatty, interesting, and in
some respects highly valuable book, of which we wish there were more,
since the two volumes are, as described by the title, filled with
_memoirs of his friends, including numerous original anecdotes and
curious traits of the most celebrated characters that have flourished
during the last eighty years_. Unlike the author of _Nollekens and
his Times_, Angelo has given due prominence to his recollections
of the caricaturist's works and career, and his terms of familiar
intimacy have supplied him with many entertaining details, trivial or
unimportant in themselves perhaps, but very much to the purpose from a
biographical point of view, as aids to the effort of reproducing the
subject in his wonted aspect, as he struck the men amongst whom he
passed his life. The spirit of Angelo's _Reminiscences_ will not bear
dilution, and so we think it better to offer his memoirs of the artist
as they were published.
'Thomas Rowlandson, John Bannister, and myself, having early in life
evinced a predilection for the study of drawing, we became acquainted
whilst boys, and were inseparable companions.
[Illustration]
'Everyone at all acquainted with the arts must well know the caricature
works of that very eccentric genius, Rowlandson; the extent of his
talent, however, as a draughtsman is not so generally known. His
studies from the human figure at the Royal Academy were made in so
masterly a style that he was set up as a rival to Mortimer, whom he
certainly would have excelled, had his subsequent study kept pace with
the fecundity of his invention. His powers, indeed, were so versatile,
and his fancy so rich, that every species of composition flowed from
his pen with equal facility. His misfortune, indeed, was, as I have
been assured by capable authorities who noticed his juvenile progress,
that of possessing too ready an invention; this rare faculty, strange
as it may seem, however desirable to the poet, often proves the bane
of the painter. "The poet," as Milton says, "can build the lofty
rhyme," even with a dash of his pen. The painter, however easily he may
conceive the structure of a mighty building--be it a temple, or be it a
ship--must describe the subject perfectly with all its parts; he must
set to work _doggedly_, as the great lexicographer, Johnson, said, and
labour at the thing with the patience of the philosopher. Rowlandson
was no philosopher, and so his uncontrollable spirit, sweeping over the
prescribed pale, took its excursive flights and caught its thema on
the wing. Hence I think it may safely be averred that he has sketched
or executed more subjects of real scenes in his original rapid manner,
than any ten artists his contemporaries, and etched more plates than
any artist, ancient or modern.
'Few persons--judging from the careless style of drawing and etching
which he so fatally indulged in, too soon, after acquiring the first
rudiments of his art--would believe the possibility of his being the
author of some of his earlier designs; for although all are too slight,
yet there are certain subjects of his composition carried through
with a compatibility of style so truly original, and so replete with
painter-like feeling, that Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Benjamin West
pronounced them wonders of art.'
On this same head we have the testimony of Ephraim Hardcastle in the
_Somerset House Gazette_. A certain weight, beyond the mere evidence
of partiality, is due to the opinions of such authorities as Henry
Angelo and W. H. Pyne, who at least deserve the credit of understanding
the subject; both were familiar with the best works of their day, and
in the case of the latter we respect the opinion of an artist of wide
experience and well-known repute.
'Thomas Rowlandson, the merry wag, he who has covered with his
never-flagging pencil enough of _charta pura_ to placard the whole
walls of China, and etched as much copper as would sheathe the British
navy. Of his graphic fun and frolic we have seen, Heaven knows, full
many a ponderous folio.
[Illustration]
'Master Roley, so friendly dubbed by many an old _convive_, would
have taken higher flights of art had he so willed, for he could draw
with elegance and grace; for the design, no mind was ever better
stored with thought--no genius more prolific. Nothing, even allowing
for caricature, could exceed in spirit and intelligence some of the
off-hand compositions of this worthy.
'Predilections for outline and the pen have ruined many a genius who
would have done honour to the arts. Mortimer, Porter, and many other
artists have sacrificed their talents and their fame to the indulgence
of doing that with the pen (confound both goose-quill, crow-quill, and
the reed!) that should have occupied that fitter instrument the pencil,
aforetime called the painting-brush.'
Angelo affords us occasional glimpses of Rowlandson in Paris, and
frequently alludes to the artist's travels on the Continent. It seems,
at various stages of his career, he roved about sometimes in search of
subjects, at others, on parties of pleasure. We have seen the young
student sent to Paris to pursue art; later on Angelo finds him there,
at nineteen, still earnest and hard-working.
'The subjects of his humorous designs were not sought in England alone.
He travelled early in life to France, Flanders, and Holland; and stored
his portfolios with sketches highly characteristic of the habits and
manners of the people, at every town through which he passed. Paris,
as viewed under the old _régime_, opened a prolific source for his
imitative powers. Nothing can exceed the fun and frolic which his
subjects display, picked up among every class, from the court down to
the _cabaret_. He mixed in all societies, and speaking French fluently,
made himself acquainted with the habits of thinking, as well as those
of acting, in that city, where everything to an English eye bore the
appearance of burlesque.
'Hogarth had already pronounced Paris "all begilt and befouled."
Rowlandson found it so; and taking that as a sort of maxim which
governed all things, physical as well as moral, in the polite city, he
burlesqued even the burlesque.
'His drawings of _The Italian_ and _The French Family_, from which
John Raffael Smith made engravings, had great merit. My friend John
Bannister had one of the originals. I remember the last time I saw
poor Edwin the comedian (I mean the elder), was on occasion of his
wishing me to procure for him these originals. He was too late in
his application, and was obliged to solace himself with the coloured
prints, which were touched upon by the hand of Rowlandson. They were
handsomely framed and hung in his dining-room on the first floor
of one of the houses on the north-east piazza, Covent Garden. They
subsequently became the property of Lord Barrymore.
'It would be difficult to enumerate the many choice subjects which he
depicted even in these first tours to the Continent. Those descriptive
of Parisian manners would now be viewed with tenfold interest, as the
general external appearance of things was infinitely more original and
amusing before the period of the commencement of the Revolution than
since. Indeed, I can speak of these changes from my own observation,
whilst two years in that city, and in the midst of its ever-varying
gaieties, more than half a century ago.[8]
'During my residence there, Rowlandson came over in company with an
Englishman of the name of Higginson, whom he got acquainted with at
Dover; a pleasant companion, but, as it fell out, one who seemed to
live on his wits.
'Their arrival in Paris was immediately after the death of Louis the
Fifteenth at the moment of the putting on public mourning (1774). Mr.
Higginson had letters of introduction (like Sylvester Daggerwood) to
several persons of distinction, and resided at an hotel adjacent to my
quarters. He sent the _valet de place_ with a civil note to request
the loan of my black suit, which he knew would fit him to a T. On the
written assurance that it would be returned in time for me to pay a
promised visit in the evening, I readily consented. Rowlandson lost
sight of him for two days and nights; on the morning of the third day
he returned, and I went, not over well pleased, to demand restitution,
when on entering his apartment, he received me with, "Ah! _mon ami_, is
it you?" seated under the frosting powder-puff of a French _friseur_,
having his hair frizzled and powdered _à la mode_, in my mourning suit.
Rowlandson sketched the group, and subjoined a motto, "Free and Easy."
I had many of the drawings made by my friend Roly at this time.'
It is most likely that our artist's first contribution to the Royal
Academy (it was the seventh exhibition) arrived from Paris; in 1775
there appeared, under the catalogue Number 253, a certain drawing
entitled _Delilah payeth Sampson a visit while in prison at Gaza_, by
Thomas Rowlandson; the exhibitor's address is given '_at_ No. 4 Church
Street, St. Ann's.'
This, no doubt, like his contributions up to 1784, was of a serious
character.[9]
From 1777 we find Rowlandson settled down to portrait-painting, his
address being given at Wardour Street; his contributions to the Academy
were as follow:--
1777. No. 302. A Drawing.
1778. " 259. Portrait of a Young Gentleman, whole length.
1779. " 275. An Officer, small, whole length.
" " 276. A Gentleman.
1780. " 373. Landscape and Figures.
1781. " 334. Portrait of a Lady in a fancy dress.
" " 339. Portrait of a Gentleman.
It is improbable, however, that the artist's disposition for change
would allow him to vegetate in one spot for any length of time, and
we are not surprised to discover that his tours to the Continent
became frequent; as far as we can judge of his extended travels, it
appears it was in 1778--while his youthful ardour was still fresh,
when his sprightly faculties had not been jaded by the allurements of
fashionable life, and his hand had not been betrayed into the careless
execution which determined some time after his decisive rejection of
serious art for the indulgence of uncompromising caricature--that he
went very earnestly to work; travelling in Flanders and through the
cities of Germany; making clever studies and finished pictures of
the incidents of his journeys; noting the travellers he encountered,
their mode of conveyance, the foreign nobility and their equipages,
the townsfolks and the country people, coaches, waggons, and, above
all, horses (which he then drew with great fidelity and spirit from
life), as far as the figure subjects which enlivened his pictures were
concerned; while his views were faithful representations of the places
he visited, worked out with the completeness of landscape art.
[Illustration]
The drawings of this period evince the excellence of his talents.
There is sufficient spice of character introduced into the groups, and
incidents which give action to his pictures, to raise his subjects
above the average treatment, but the comic element is subordinated
to the general harmony of the whole conception; and we have every
opportunity of forming our opinion, from the numerous interesting
series of studies which have come under our attention, that it was
not until about 1782 that our artist began to cut himself adrift from
the more legitimate occupation of his vast abilities in the regions
of serious art, for the allurements which the readier exercise of his
talents as a caricaturist held out for the indulgence of his eccentric
and wayward tendencies. As we have seen, his early bias was undoubtedly
towards the simply ludicrous; then intervened his academic training in
London and Paris, the maturing of his powers necessitating an immense,
and indeed almost incredible amount of sterling hard work, such as
fitted him to excel in any branch of his calling he elected to pursue;
followed by an attempt towards his establishment as a serious artist
and portrait-painter, and then a relapse in the direction of his early
impulses. This inclination was fostered by the encouragement of his
friends, and the influence of their example. His cronies were, as was
most natural, the humorous designers. There was the great and gifted
Gillray, the prince of caricaturists, whose works created an impression
on the public justified by their remarkable qualities. The friendship
of this man, whose reputation was so wide, and whose mastery of the
situation appeared extraordinary, encouraged Rowlandson to strike out a
pathway in the same direction; bringing original qualifications to bear
on this impetus, which in no degree clashed with the strongly marked
intentions of Gillray's scathing inventions. There was his constant
friend Henry Wigstead, a man of social standing, profusely liberal
in his house, a jovial companion out of doors; who, richly endowed
with the vein of humorous invention allied to powers of observation,
and a refined sense of the beautiful, as well as a ready knack of
seizing the comic features of a situation, entrusted his sketches to
Rowlandson, that they might be produced in fitting form; and to the
proper execution of these whimsicalities Rowlandson willingly lent the
full force of his own trained skill. Another amateur of distinction,
whose example and influence must have had considerable weight with our
artist, was Henry Bunbury, the caricaturist, a man of family, of means,
and, above all, of high culture. The celebrated Bunbury seemed formed
expressly to be courted by the most eminent of his contemporaries; he
had married one of the beautiful Miss Hornecks; the Duke and Duchess of
York were delighted with his company; amongst the brilliant assemblies
at Wynnstay, Bunbury's society was the most relished; Walpole, Garrick,
Reynolds, and Goldsmith were constantly laying adulation at his feet,
or exchanging gallant little pleasantries with this favoured child of
fortune; West and Reynolds were respectfully solicitous that he should
send his contributions to the Royal Academy; the writers of the day
were given to deplore that the occupations of town and country life,
the court, the hunting-field, and the ceremony of receiving company at
his country-house or paying visits to the seats of his noble friends,
sadly interfered with the exercise of his artistic abilities.
[Illustration]
The instance of Bunbury, who was Rowlandson's senior by six years,
no doubt had considerable influence upon our artist's career; the
praise and adulation lavished upon the amateur sketches of the man
of fashion, and the prophecies which writers were in the habit of
recording, that, if Bunbury had not, from his birth and station, been
indifferent to mere monetary advantages, the pursuit of his talents
must have infallibly produced him a large access of fortune (which he
did not need, by the way, since his means were ample) possibly helped
to turn Rowlandson from quietly persevering in the less congenial study
of portraiture, and induced him to show the public what could be done
in the grotesque walk. Nor must we forget Mitchell the banker, whose
friendship was always at our caricaturist's service, his travelling
companion to the Continent, where Rowlandson and his patron passed for
the veritable representatives of John Bull. There was 'the facetious
Nixon,' the pleasant and witty John, 'a choice member of the celebrated
Old British Beef-Steak Club, honorary secretary, and sometime providore
to that society of native gourmands;' further, like his friend Bunbury,
distinguished as a man of talent and taste, possessed of original
gifts in the humorous department of graphic art, he was an honorary
exhibitor at Somerset House for many years: this gentleman, who had
perfected the study of how to get the largest possible amount of
enjoyment out of existence, also came to Rowlandson to put his drawings
into acceptable shape, and to introduce his eccentric pleasantries
to the public. Nor must the well-known amateurs and choice spirits,
Woodward and Collings, be omitted from the list of those familiars
of the artist who, by precept and example, encouraged him to devote
his accomplishments to the comic branch. It is not surprising that
the tendency of this influence, allied to the strong original bias
natural to our artist, drew him farther away from the steady pursuit
of art, and plunged him into the tempting career of a caricaturist,
a pursuit which held out peculiar attractions to an artist gifted
with his whimsical inclinations. We must do Rowlandson the credit to
admit that, at the outset, he distinguished himself marvellously. His
first contributions, under his changed profession, were by no means
discreditable to his great qualifications; indeed these drawings,
from the successful impression they produced on the public, appeared
to justify the resolution the artist had taken, and to prove that he
was evidently more at home in the fanciful branch than any of his
predecessors or contemporaries. In 1784 Rowlandson contributed three
somewhat ambitious subjects to the Royal Academy Exhibition; according
to the Catalogue No. 462, _An Italian Family_; No. 503, _Vauxhall_; No.
511, _The Serpentine River_.
_Vauxhall Gardens_, which is possibly the best recognised of
Rowlandson's more aspiring compositions, was engraved by R. Pollard,
aquatinted, to resemble the drawing, by F. Jukes, and published under
the auspices of John Raphael Smith, also a convivial companion, a
leading spirit amongst the careless souls who formed Rowlandson's
social surroundings; the well-known printseller, who was 'a
jack-of-all-trades' according to his own admission, was celebrated for
his liberality to artists; he personally practised the arts both of
engraving and painting, and he excelled in executing spirited portrait
sketches, in crayons, 'miniatures in large' as they were called, of the
fashionable personages of his day.
The Study of _Vauxhall_ is replete with character; the persons of
the principal frequenters are, it is believed, portraits of numerous
celebrities of the period.
Angelo, in his _Reminiscences_, which touch upon every topic of the
time, among other interesting allusions, recounts the partiality which
he and Rowlandson entertained for the popular resort of the past, and
the attractions which, according to his admission, its diversions held
out to the pair.
'_Vauxhall._--I remember the time when Vauxhall (in 1776, the price of
admission being then only one shilling) was more like a bear garden
than a rational place of resort, and most particularly on Sunday
mornings.
'It was then crowded from four to six with gentry, demireps,
apprentices, shop-boys, &c. Crowds of citizens were to be seen trudging
home with their wives and children. Rowlandson the artist and myself
have often been there, and he has found plenty of employment for his
pencil.
'The _chef-d'oeuvre_ of his caricatures, which is still in print,
is his drawing of Vauxhall, in which he has introduced a variety of
characters known at the time, particularly that of my old schoolfellow
at Eton, Major Topham, the macaroni of the day. One curious scene he
sketched on the spot purposely for me. It was this:--A citizen and his
family are seen all seated in a box eating supper, when one of the
riffraff in the gardens throws a bottle in the middle of the table,
breaking the dishes and the glasses. The old man swearing, the wife
fainting, and the children screaming, afforded full scope for his
humorous pencil.
'Such night scenes as were then tolerated are now become obsolete.
Rings were made in every part of the gardens to decide quarrels; it
no sooner took place in one quarter, than by a contrivance of the
light-fingered gentry, another row was created in another quarter to
attract the crowd away.'
[Illustration]
Before taking leave of Rowlandson and Angelo, the most agreeable of
companions, at Vauxhall, we must add a further note of another of their
holiday jaunts, once more borrowed from the _Reminiscences_.
'Mrs. Weichsel (Mrs. Billington's mother) was the favourite singer
at Vauxhall; upon one occasion she had her benefit at the little
theatre in the Haymarket. Her daughter and son added considerably
to the entertainment that night; though the former could not have
been fourteen years old, her execution on the pianoforte surprised
everyone. The son, then a little boy, played a solo on the fiddle in
such peculiarly fine style that the audience were both astonished and
delighted. Exhibiting his early abilities standing on a stool, I was
present that night with Rowlandson the artist, who made a sketch of him
playing, which he afterwards finished for me, and which, within these
few years, was within my collection.'
We will leave Rowlandson rejoicing in the popular impression his
drawings had produced in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy for
1784, where, as his friends were inclined to prophesy, his fame and
fortune were both assured, and turn to the subject of another fortune
which seems to have come into his possession about this period. We
have said that the artist was a spoiled child of prosperity; his
contemporaries record their impression that the indulgences of his
aunt, the ex-Mademoiselle Chattelier already referred to, as the
kindly patroness of her wayward nephew's budding talents, who supplied
him incautiously with money, when he would have been better without
it, paved the foundation of those careless habits which attended his
manhood; and to her injudicious generosity his biographer affects to
trace that improvidence for which, says our authority, poor Rowlandson
was remarkable through life. After this aunt's decease, she left
him seven thousand pounds, much plate, trinkets, and other valuable
property. He then indulged his predilections for a joyous life, and
mixed himself with the gayest of the gay. Whilst at Paris, being of a
social spirit, he sought the company of dashing young men; and among
other evils, imbibed a love for play. He was known in London at many
of the fashionable gaming houses, alternately won and lost, without
emotion, till at length he was minus several thousand pounds. He thus
dissipated the amount of more than one valuable legacy. It was said
to his honour, however, that he always played with the feelings of a
gentleman, and his word passed current even when with an empty purse.
Rowlandson assured the writer of the memoir which appeared, on his
death, in the obituary of _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for June 1827,
that he had frequently played throughout a night and the next day;
and that once, such was his infatuation for the dice, he continued at
the gaming table nearly thirty-six hours, with the intervention only
of the time for refreshment, which was supplied by a cold collation,
presumably consumed on the spot and during the intervals of play.
This uncontrollable passion for gambling, strange to say, did not
pervert his principles. He was scrupulously upright in all his
pecuniary transactions, and ever avoided getting into debt. He has
been known, after having lost all he possessed, to return home to
his professional studies, sit down coolly to produce a series of new
designs, and to exclaim, with stoical philosophy, 'I have played the
fool; but,' holding up his pencils or the reed pen with which he traced
his flowing outlines, 'here is my resource.' Such was his dexterity of
hand, combined with the richest fertility of imagination, and graphic
mastery over the movements of the human figure, that in a few hours
he produced inimitable pictures, replete with his best qualities of
humour, form, and colour, with incredible rapidity; and these ingenious
productions, invented in endless variety, were at once put into
circulation, and excited the competition of collectors of drawings and
caricatures, who eagerly accumulated every sketch which his facile hand
designed, too often under the pressure of the actual necessities of the
hour, or the careless effusions of the intervals in his pleasures or
dissipations.
Rowlandson's contributions to the Academy in the succeeding years were
as follows:--
1786. No. 560. A French Family.
" " 566. Opera House Gallery.
" " 575. An English Review.
" " 583. A French Review.
" " 599. Coffee House.
1787. " 525. The Morning Dram, or Huntsman rising.
" " 529. Grog on Board a Ship.
" " 531. French Barracks.
" " 555. Countrymen and Sharpers.
It was about this time that our caricaturist met with a somewhat
disagreeable adventure, which is thus related by his friend Angelo:--
'_Rowlandson robbed._--Having walked one night with Rowlandson towards
his house, when he lived in Poland Street,[10] we parted at the corner.
It was then about twelve o'clock, and before he got to his door a man
knocked him down, and, placing his knees on his breast, rifled him
of his watch and money. The next day he proposed that we should be
accompanied by a thief-taker, to try to find him out, as he was certain
he should know him again. We first repaired to St. Giles's, Dyot
Street, and Seven Dials, but to no purpose. In one of the night-houses,
four ill-looking fellows, _des coupes-jarrets_, so attracted our
attention, that whilst we sat over our noggin of spirits, as he always
carried his sketch-book with him, he made an excellent caricature group
of them for me, introducing a prison in the background. An idea may
be formed from the caricature, of the different gradations which lead
to the gallows--petty larceny, house-breaking, foot-pad and highway
robbery; and he afterwards finished it for me in his best style,
superior to the greater part of his works; this was about 1790. The
coloured drawing once was included in my collection, in a room crowded
with various subjects, the greatest part caricatures by my old friend
Rowly--his general appellation among his friends.
[Illustration]
'Our first interview originated in Paris (about 1775); he was then
studying in the French school. Lately, having to dispose of my
collection (I may say unique), my friend Bannister purchased it of me,
and it was added to his many choice and valuable drawings of the first
masters, which were so very superior that the four thieves ought to
have esteemed it an honour to be placed in such good company.[11]
'The next night a gentleman was robbed in Soho Square in like manner.
Soon afterwards several suspicious characters were taken to an office
then in Litchfield Street, Soho, suspected of street robberies, and
Rowlandson and myself went there out of curiosity, accompanied by
many others who had been robbed. They were all placed before us, but
none were identified. Rowlandson was particularly called upon to look
around him, but to no purpose. One man in particular made himself more
conspicuous than all the others, treating his curiosity with contempt,
saying, "I defies the gemman to say as how I ever stopped him any
_vare_." "No; but you are very like the description of the ruffian,"
answered Rowlandson, "who robbed a gentleman last Wednesday night in
Soho Square." This was a thunderbolt to the man, who instantly looked
pale and trembled. The gentleman was immediately sent for, and as soon
as he entered the room, though there were several for examination, he
fixed directly on the man that had been suspected. At the sessions
following he was found guilty of robbery, and hanged. This pleased my
friend mightily; "for, though I got knocked down," said he, "and lost
my watch and money, and did not find the thief, I have been the means
of hanging _one_ man. Come, that's doing something."'
[Illustration]
We incidentally learn a few particulars of subjects which found their
way into Angelo's gallery, the collection which subsequently came into
the possession of his excellent friend Bannister.
'_Black and White._--Being fond of the arts and particularly of
caricatures, I had by me a great number of Rowlandson's, to one of
which I was puzzled to give a name. The subject was an old man, at
breakfast, seated near the fire, his gouty leg on a stool, and the
kettle boiling over; the water is falling on his leg, and he is ringing
the bell. The room door is open behind him, and a black servant is
kissing the maid, who is bringing in the toast. I requested Theodore
Hook to write a title to it, and he put, "_Chacun à son goût_."'[12]
We are further afforded an opportunity of recording Rowlandson's
enthusiasm for his profession. The details of a certain visit he
paid, with Angelo, to Portsmouth, and the unflinching nerve he
exhibited under circumstances which were calculated to distress a less
robust constitution, are thus recounted by his friend and travelling
companion:--
'The general rumour, after Lord Howe's action on June 1, 1794, was that
he would return to Portsmouth. I was anxious to see the sight, for it
was expected he would bring the French prizes with him.
'The evening after my arrival, according to promise, Rowlandson the
artist came to join me.
'The morning following we saw, on the Gosport side, the landing of the
French prisoners, numbers of different divisions filing off to the
different stations allotted them. As for the wounded, previous to their
quitting the boats, carts were placed alongside, and when filled, on
the smack of the whip, were ordered to proceed. The sudden jolting made
their groans appalling, and must have occasioned the wounds of many
to produce an immediate hemorrhage. The sight was dreadful to behold:
numbers were boys, mutilated, some not more than twelve years old, who
had lost both legs. In the evening we went to Forton Prison. Those who
were not in the last engagement were in high spirits in their shops,
selling all sorts of toys and devices, made from shin-bones, &c. In one
of the sick-wards we saw one of the prisoners, who, an officer told
us had been a tall, handsome man, previous to the battle; but, having
received a shot that had lacerated his side, a mortification had taken
place. He was then making his will; his comrades were standing by,
consoling him, some grasping his hand, shedding tears.
'This scene was too much for me, and made such an impression on my mind
that I hastened away; but I could not persuade Rowlandson to follow
me, his inclination to make a sketch of the dying moment getting the
better of his feelings. After waiting some time below for my friend,
he produced a rough sketch of what he had seen:--a ghastly figure
sitting up in bed, a priest holding a crucifix before him, with a group
standing around. The interior exhibited the contrivance of the French
to make their prison habitable. When finished, it was added to my
collection, a memento of the shocking sight I beheld at Forton Prison.
'Our curiosity not stopping here, we entered another sick-ward, but
the stench and closeness of the place, crowded as it was, prevented
our remaining there more than a very short time. The next day, having
seen quite enough, I returned to town. Rowlandson went to Southampton,
where he made a number of sketches of Lord Moira's embarkation for _La
Vendée_. I saw them afterwards, and was delighted, for it appeared he
had taken more pains than usual, and he must have portrayed them well,
from having been on the spot himself at the time. The shipping and
the various boats filled with soldiers were so accurately delineated,
that I have often since regretted that I did not at that time purchase
them. Mr. Fores of Piccadilly, who had by him many of the very finest
drawings executed by Rowlandson in his best days (for latterly they
were inferior), fortunately purchased them. He was one of his first and
best patrons; and I understand he had twenty-five folio volumes of the
most choice caricatures of the last and present centuries, which must
have been an invaluable _recueil_, showing not only what we have been,
but the age we lived in. Had Rowlandson gone with the expedition then
landing in _La Vendée_ as a draughtsman, the attack at Fort Penthièvre,
and the incident that followed, would have furnished us with many
eventful scenes of that fatal expedition.'
[Illustration]
As we have related, Rowlandson was no stranger to the Continent; in the
early part of his career he was constantly abroad. We have shown how
he studied in Paris; afterwards we find him wandering farther afield,
and taking in Germany and the Netherlands. Then we are introduced
to him as a man of fashion, bowling through the legacies which had
fallen to his lot, both in the French metropolis and in London, calmly
sitting down to gamble away his fortune by the shortest route with the
best will in the world. Anon he accompanies his friend Mitchell the
banker on a wider tour. Then we hear of his sojourning in Paris with
other congenial spirits, and making the most of the passing season
with his friends John Raphael Smith, Westmacott, and Chasemore: on all
these occasions he produced drawings innumerable; his most frequent
travelling companion seems, however, to have been his steadfast
patron the banker, and it was this liberal collector who rejoiced in
the opportunity of securing the artist's most desirable Continental
studies. Our oft-quoted authority Angelo, who, happily for those who
entertain an interest in the caricaturist, never tires of telling
little anecdotes of his chum Roley, in his own familiar manner relates
a few particulars of the figure these worthies made in the eyes of the
_Monsieurs_, amongst whom their visits were favourably received.
'Mr. Mitchell, however, possessed the best collection of Rowlandson's
French and Dutch scenes. Among those were many in his most humorous
style, particularly a _Dutch Life Academy_, which represents the
interior of a school of artists, studying from a living model, all
with their portfolios and crayons, drawing a Dutch Venus (a _vrow_) of
the make, though not of the colour, of that choice specimen of female
proportion, the _Hottentot Venus_, so celebrated as a public sight in
London, a few years since.
'This friend and patron of Rowlandson, Mr. Mitchell the quondam banker,
of the firm of Hodsol and Co., was a facetious, fat gentleman--one
of those pet children of fortune, who, wonderful as it may appear,
seem to have proceeded through all the seven ages (excepting that of
the _lean_ and slippered pantaloon), without a single visit from that
intruder upon the rest of mankind, yclept _Care_. In him centred, or
rather around him the Fates piled up, the wealth of a whole family.
He was ever the great gathering _nucleus_ to a large fortune. He was
good-humoured and enjoyed life. Many a cheerful day have I, in company
with Bannister and Rowlandson, passed at Master Mitchell's.'
Under the auspices of this great banker, Rowlandson subsequently made a
tour to France, and other parts of the Continent. 'His mighty stature
astonished the many, but none more than the innkeepers' wives, who, on
his arrival, as he travelled in style, looked at the larder, and then
again at the guest. All regarded him as that reported being, of whom
they had heard, the veritable Mister Bull. His orders for the supplies
of the table, ever his first concern, strengthened this opinion, and
his operations at his meals confirmed the fact.
'Wherever he went he made good for the house.
'On this tour, Rowlandson made many topographical drawings, in general
views of cities and towns; amongst others, the High Street at Antwerp,
and the Stadt House at Amsterdam, with crowds of figures, grouped with
great spirit, though his characters were caricatures.
'The most amusing studies, however, which filled the portfolio of his
patron were those that portrayed the habits and customs of the Dutch
and Flemish, in the interior scenes, which they witnessed in their
nocturnal rambles in the inferior streets at Antwerp and Amsterdam.
Some of these compositions, drawn from low life, were replete with
character and wit. One of the most spirited and amusing of these
represented the interior of a _Treischuit_, or public passage-boat,
which was crowded with incident and humour.'[13]
Another reminiscence of Rowlandson and Mitchell is found in the
_Somerset-house Gazette_, edited by Ephraim Hardcastle (W. H. Pyne),
an intimate associate of the caricaturist and a member of the artist's
circle of friends.
'I look back with pleasure to former days, when old Mr. Greenwood
used to hold the print auctions by candle-light, and have a perfect
recollection of his good-humour and upright dealing. I well remember,
too, a number of artists and amateurs who constantly attended his room,
to purchase etchings of the old masters for themselves and friends.
'Old Parsons, as he was called, and young Bannister, the celebrated
comedians, were both collectors and amateur artists: the latter was
considered an excellent judge of prints. Rowlandson, the humorous
draughtsman, and his friend and patron Mr. Mitchell the banker, of the
firm of Hodsols, were also frequently of this evening rendezvous of
artists, amateurs, and connoisseurs.'
John Thomas Smith, the whilom pupil of Nollekens the sculptor
(with whose life he favoured the public), and one of Mr. Reid's
predecessors as Keeper of the Print Room of the British Museum, in his
loquacious _Book for a Rainy Day_ rambles into the subject of picture
sale-rooms, and notes the eccentric characters, collectors, and their
individualities, to be met with thereat in his time. On this subject
'Antiquity Smith's' account tallies with that given by Angelo. We have
confined our extract to the paragraph which introduces the caricaturist
as a crony and erst fellow-pupil of the versatile chronicler.
'I must not omit to mention another singular but most honourable
character, of the name of Heywood, nick-named "Old Iron-wig." His dress
was precise, and manner of walking rather stiff. He was an extensive
purchaser of every kind of article in art, particularly Rowlandson's
drawings; for this purpose he employed the merry and friendly Mr.
Seguier, the picture-dealer, a school-fellow of my father's, to bid for
him.
'I shall now close this list by observing that my friend and
fellow-pupil, Rowlandson, who has frequently made drawings of Hutchins
and his print auctions, has produced a most spirited etching, in which
not only many of the above described characters are introduced, but
also most of the print-sellers of his day.'
The editor of this work has seen a drawing by Rowlandson of this very
auction, the _cognoscenti_ gathered round the long tables lighted with
flickering candles, and peering over the engravings, glasses on nose,
while the auctioneer was endeavouring to excite the interest of the
company in the prints brought to his rostrum.
Before we pass on to other contemporaries of the caricaturist, we think
it advisable to introduce the reader to the society which Rowlandson
shared round the hospitable mahogany of the banker, who, like Wigstead,
Nixon, Weltjé, and certain other generous hosts of our artist's
acquaintance, appears to have kept open house for the entertainment
of choice friends, where the enjoyments of social intercourse were
prolonged to the verge of dissipation, and the fun, which enlivened
their hours of relaxation, was frequently kept up until the next
day was well advanced; the associates being loth to interrupt the
pleasures of their sitting, protracted as their gaieties might be
considered according to the more staid usages of a better regulated
age, such as we have been taught to regard our own.
'Mr. Mitchell resided for many years in Beaufort Buildings, Strand,
and occupied the house tenanted by the father of Dr. Kitchiner, of
eccentric memory. Here, after the closing of the banking-house, he was
wont to retire, and pass a social evening, surrounded by a few chosen
associates whose amusements were congenial, and whose talent well paid
the host for his hot supper and generous wine. Often, even beyond the
protracted darkness of a winter's night, he and his _convives_ have sat
it out till dawn of day, and seen the sun, struggling through the fog,
from the back windows, shed its lurid ray on the rippling waters of the
murky Thames.
[Illustration]
'Well do I remember sitting in this comfortable apartment, listening
to the stories of my old friend Peter Pindar, whose wit seemed not to
kindle until after midnight, at the period of about his fifth or sixth
glass of brandy and water. Rowlandson, too, having nearly accomplished
his twelfth glass of punch, and replenishing his pipe with choice
_oronooko_, would chime in. The tales of these two gossips, told in
one of these nights, each delectable to hear, would make a modern
_Boccaccio_.'
Angelo, in his capital chatty _Memoirs_, relates an anecdote of one
of Wigstead's pranks played off on the satirist Peter Pindar, whose
trenchant wit spared 'nor friend nor foe;' but, in his turn, Dr.
Wolcot did not relish ridicule, especially when it happened to be
excited at his own expense. It was discovered that, eminently satirical
as was the bard with his pen, he was not emulous to shine as a wit
in colloquial intercourse with strangers, or even amongst his most
intimate associates. It was asserted, with some fidelity, that 'Dr.
Wolcot's wit seemed to lie in the bowl of a teaspoon.' 'I could not
guess the riddle,' writes the discursive and cheerful author of the
_Reminiscences_, 'until one evening, seated at Mitchell's, I observed
that each time Peter replenished his glass goblet with cognac and
water, that, in breaking the sugar, the corners of his lips were curled
into a satisfactory smile, and he began some quaint story--as if,
indeed, the new libation begot a new thought.
'Determined to prove the truth of the discovery which I fancied I had
made, one night after supper, at my own residence in Bolton Row, he
being one among a few social guests, I made my promised experiment.
One of the party, who delighted in a little practical joke, namely
Wigstead, of merry memory, being in the secret, he came provided with
some small square pieces of alabaster. Peter Pindar's glass waning
fast, Wigstead contrived to slip the fragments of spurious sweetness
into a sugar-basin provided for the purpose, when the Doctor reaching
the hot water, and pouring in the brandy, Wigstead handed him the
sugar-tongs, and then advanced the basin of alabaster. "Thank you,
boy," said Peter, putting in five or six pieces, and taking his
tea-spoon, began stirring as he commenced his stor
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