Thomas Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson was born July 1756, Old Jewry, London, England and died April 22, 1827, London. He was an English painter and caricaturist who illustrated the life of the 18th century England and created comic images of familiar social types of his day, such as the antiquarian, the old maid, the blowsy barmaid, and the Grub Street hack. His characters ranged from the ridiculously pretentious, with their elaborate coiffures, widely frogged uniforms, and enormous bosoms and bottoms, to the merely pathetic, whose trailing handkerchiefs expressed their dejected attitudes.

 

The son of a tradesman, Rowlandson became a student in the Royal Academy in the early 1770's. At age 16 he went to study in Paris. After establishing a studio as a portrait painter, he began to draw caricatures to supplement his income, and this soon became his major interest.

 

Most of Rowlandson's drawings were first done in ink with a reed pen and then given a delicate wash of colour. His work is represented in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metroplitan Museum and man private collections.

 

All was going well for Thomas until he inherited £7,000 from his aunt in 1798. The money turned into a curse as Rowlandson had a taste for indulgence and with the money he would waste obscene amounts gambling, drinking and on prostitutes until a decade he was penniless and broken.