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3. Thomas Rowlandson
Kenneth G. Hay
Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Art Practice, The University of Leeds, UK

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Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
•Born in London, son of an impoverished weaver.
•1759 Moved to North Yorkshire to stay with his aunt and uncle who lodged him and paid for him to
study in London at the Barvis School then quite a famous Academy.
•Began drawing cartoons at school
•1772 Spent two year in Paris studying drawing.
•Studied at the Royal Academy on his return
•Inherited £7000.00 on the death of his aunt and spent most of it on pleasures and gambling
•1809 Started drawing cartoons professionally, producing many volumes of cartoons and satires.
•Died 1827, in London, , aged 72.
•
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Pitt and Fox play football with East India House. Contrasting in physique as well as ideologically.
Pitt, who was legally trained has nearby a copy of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of
England, whilst fast-living Fox has dice and cards including a King of Spades, perhaps to critique
the King’s manipulation of Parliament).
Fox’s East India Bill failed in the House of Lords due to George III’s machinations and led to the
collapse of the Fox-North coalition in 1783. Pitt tried to put forward his own East India Bill in
1784. Fox’s Bill tried to free the Company from Government interference/control. Pitt tried to
split its political and financial aspects. Both failed.

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Published by William Humphrey, The Strand, London, 3 March 1784. George III is shown as the
13th-century Franciscan friar Roger Bacon. Bacon was reputed to have constructed a Bronze Head
which would inform him how to protect England from invasion. But he slept and missed the
instruction. Here, Rowlandsn uses the allegory to criticise George III’s attempts to influence
Parliament. The three gold medallions of the Constitution show the varying influence of the King
over
Parliament over time: In the first disk, the King holds all the power with the two Parliamentary
Houses shown as little balloons on he edge;
To the right (time was) the three powers are equally balanced and interlinked. George III holds a
wand in each hand pointing to time past and present, hoping to restore a strong Monarchy, aided by
his ministers led by a small black Devil, creep down the back stairs, while Edmond Fox Lord North
and their ally Edmund Burke, warns ‘beware’.

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“The Champion of the People” (11 March 1784) Published by William Humphrey. Etching with hand
colouring. 25 x 35 cm.
Fox as the Champion of the people, in the guise of Hercules, defeating the Hydra, he defends
England, Ireland and the East Indies against Tyranny, Assumed Prerogative, Despotism, Oppression,
Secret Influence, Duplicity and Corruption - (all reference to George III’s attempts to manipulate
Parliament).
The eighth head reads “Scotch Politik” in reference to Pitt’s ally, Henry Dundass, Viscount
Melville, a prominent Scottish politician.
To the left, a group of foreigner’s dance round a ‘standard of sedition’, rejoicing at Britain’s
domestic squabbling.

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Thomas Burke, after Henry Fuseli (1741-1815)
“The Nightmare” - stipple engraving 1783

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Published by William Humphrey 227 The Strand, London 1784
Fuseli’s painting had been exhibited in the RA in 1782 and many copies were made. In April 1784,
Fox was fighting an election in Westminster, where the Hustings were in Covent Garden. Fox is shown
in the pose of the woman with his usual dice . The cartoon is unclear whether Fox is having a
nightmare about the election, or whether he is the nightmare himself.

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Published by William Humphrey, 12 April 1784. Etching and hand colouring, 25 x 35 cm.
Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire began to support Fox’s candidacy for one of the seats in
Westminster in April and her involvement helped his campaign considerably. She gained a reputation
(which she denied) for kissing supporters to ensure votes for Fox.
She was also a Gambler, like Fox.

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Thomas Gainsborough: Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire 1783
•Legend has it that the portrait was stolen by Adam Worth and that he slept with it under his
mattress for 20 years.
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Published by William Humphrey, 1784; Etching with hand colouring, 25 x 35 cm
Fox and Hood defeated Cecil Wray and were elected to the two Westminster seats on 17 May 1784. The
print gently satirises their victory and the role played by women in it, particularly the Duchess
of Devonshire. The Duchess hosts a ‘benefit’ concert with her new protegés in front of the ‘tomb’
of Wray, while Edmund Burke (Fox’s ally) looks on. The ‘free entry’ for those wearing fox-tails
alludes to adoption of this symbol by Fox’s supporters, and one decorates the Duchess’s hat. The
central picture, depicting the Fox who has lost his tail” alludes to his ‘emasculation’ at the
hands of the Duchess; The Fox and Grapes, to Aesop’s fable where the Fox disdains the grapes
because he cannot reach them, and the Fox and Crow, in which the Fox flatters the Crow to gain
cheese – all allusions to Fox’s tactics during the campaign.

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“Filial Piety”, Published by Samuel Fores, 23 November 1788,
Etching and hand colouring, 25.6 x 37.5 cm
In late 1788 George III developed a serious illness and became increasingly confused. By December
it was clear he could no longer govern and Parliament began to draw up a Regency Act to control the
Prince Regent’s powers. The Prince was allied with the Whigs led by his friend Charles James Fox,
so William Pitt, his Rival tried to limit the Regent’s powers.. By February the King had recovered.
Rowlandson contrasts the ailing King with his drunken son,
bursting in to the sick room with his cronies (George Hangar a failed Army officer and Richard
Sheridan a playwright) to see if the old fellow is mad/dead or what..The bishop in the centre has
been giving the King Communion. The Prince was indeed found to be drinking and singing and lost
much public support.

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The Prospect Before Us Published by ‘Tom Brown’, 20 December 1788. Etching and hand colouring, 24.8
x 35 cm.
Here Rowlandson plays on concerns about the German-born QueenCharlotte’s influence during the
King’s illness. She is seen following her German dressmaker, Mme Schwellenber, who was known to
have strong influence over her, who hold’s the Lord Chancellor’s purse and mace, while Pitt follows
the Queen, holding her scarf with proprietorial care. The Queen tramples the Prince of Wales’
feathers (labeled ‘My son’s right’) Behind, a group of supporters, including the disgraced Governor
of India, Warren Hastings, stand outside the Treasury, cheering. Each declares their designs on
power - The Queen
says “I know nothing of the matter. I follow Billy’s advice”.
The title refers to a pamphlet by Dennis O’Bryen,”The Prospect before us..”Concerning public unease
with the Queen’s influence under the Regency.

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Thomas Gainsborough(1727-88), “Queen Charlotte” 1872
•There were widespread concerns about the German-born Queen Charlotte’s influence during the King’s
illness.
•Dennis O’Bryen’s pamphlet criticised her and William Pitt for trying to exert influence over the
Prince Regent (a follower and friend of Fox and the Whig interest)
•
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Published by Samuel Forbes, 30 December 1788. Etching and hand colouring, 24.8 x 26.3 cm.
Published one day after a satire by Willaiam Dent, parodying an Extraordinary ‘Stone Eater’ then to
be seen at a trunk-maker’s shop on the Strand. The print purports to be an advert for a ‘Word
Eater’ just arrived from the Continent, who eats single words and phrases, and evacuates them
immediately with opposite meanings. Dent’s print compares Fox to Demosthenes, who is known to have
spoken with stones in his mouth to improve his diction. Fox had just been summoned from Bologna by
the Prince of Wales when the King’s Illness became clear.  Fox, a well known orator, threatens to
devour the Bill of Rights of the People, the Magna Carta and twist them all to give contrary
meanings, suggesting he will use all the texts of law to his own advantage.

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Published by Samuel Fores, 28 January 1789, Etching with hand colouring, 23.2 x 34.5 cm
Pitt proposed a Regency settlement with firm restrictions on the Regent’s powers on 16 January. The
Prince is shown as a child, in clothes worn by pre-trouser infants, dwarfed by the oversize
headdress of feathers and with a wheeled walking fraqme beside him. He leans towards a crown
encircled by marbles, but is restrained by Pitt who pulls on the leading ribbons saying “Hold, not
so fast Gregory” To the left Fox, Burke and Sheridan eagerly prepare to play for the crown. The
implication that he was too weak to govern on hos own was a damaging one.

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Published by Samuel Forbes, 1 April 1790; Etching and hand colouring, 36.2 x 48.9 cm
Masquerades – masked and costumed balls with a scandalous undercurrent of sexual freedom- were very
popular, if castigated, in the 18^th-century. Attendees ranged from the Prince of Wales to
prostitutes plying their trade. Formal conventions of acceptable dress were abandoned for exotic
and risqué costumes, cross-dressing and play-acting, as depicted here. A group of women, possibly
courtesans,  prepare for the ball – one is dressed as a man, another as a nun, clutching a bottle
and glass.  The social disorder of the masquerade is suggested by the chaos of furniture and
costumes in the room.

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A Grand Battle between the famous English Cock and Russian Hen!
Published by William Holland, 25 April 1791. Etching and hand colouring, 31.3 x 42.7 cm
In the cockpit, two hens are fighting – one with the face of George III and the other as Catherine
the Great.
Around them, the monarchs of Europe place best, revealing their allegiance to either Britain or
Russia. Amongst those betting on George III is Queen Charlotte, but the King’s Ministers Pitt and
Thurlow are envious of the Russian monarch’s strength. To the far right is he lover, Grigory
Potemkin, who helped her defeat the Ottoman Empire and who vows he will ‘Back her to the last”. The
scene refers to Pitt’s attempts to cow Russia and halt its advances into the Ottoman Empire by
threatening an alliance with Britain, Prussia and the United Provinces: an aggressive policy which
Pitt was forced to withdraw.Rowlandson’s print is based on Hogarth’s 1759 engraving of The Cockpit.
He has placed the Sultan of Turkey in the centre as a focus of contention, but also because in
Hogarth’s original, Lord Albermarle, the central figure, was blind, and is shown being robbed to
right and left. Rowlandson is suggesting that the Turkish ruler is equally helpless in this
situation.

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William Hogarth (1697-1764), “Cock pit” (1759), Engraving, 32.6 x 39.4 cm

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A Little Tighter (1791)
•Published by Samuel Fores, 18 May 1791
•Etching with hand colouring, 39.1 x 31.2 cm
•
•Rowlandson mocks the ridiculousness of the enormous lady trying to squeeze herself into a tight
corset with the help of a beleaguered tailor half her size who strains under the effort.
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Anything will do for an Officer
•Watercolour, 1759, 19.7 x 16.1cm
•The diminutive officer, dwarfed by his sabre stands in front of a cannon. Probably a caricature of
a French office, ridiculed by the Times as, “a set of rogues and plunderers”.(1798).
•A print of this watercolour was published by Samuel Forbes in 1796 with a text which alludes to a
bunch of schoolboys playing at soldiers, one of whom was so misshapen and small that the only
option was to make him an officer..
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Rachael Pringle of Barbadoes
•Published by William Holland, 1796.
•Etching and Aquatint with hand colouring, 56 x 44.2 cm
•Rachael Pringle-Polgreen was the daughter of a dissolute Scottish schoolmaster and an enslaved
African woman who together ran a shop in Bridgetown Jamaica. Her father’s name was Lauder, but she
took her name from Thomas Pringle, an officer who purchased her from her violent father and set her
free. She subsequently came under the protection of a man called Polgreen, whose name she also
took.. By the early 1780s she had become one of the most successful women in Bridgetown, running a
tavern.hotel which hosted locals and travellers, including possibly Prince William (George III’s
son later King William IV).
•Produced five years after her death, it is clear that Rowlandson did not intend this print to be
satirical. It is rather a portrait print, of interest to the British market, interested in her
story and appearance.
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High Spirits (c.1800)
•Pen with brown ink and watercolour washes, 22 x 18 cm
•Rowlandson often depicted drunks. ‘High Spirits’ is from a series of dishevelled, somewhat
depressed looking women. The date is difficult to ascertain except for an inscription on the
reverse to Thomas Tegg in 1804 suggesting it was an old drawing sent to him some time after its
creation.
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The Unwelcome Visitor (c.1800)
•Pen and ink with watercolour over pencil, 25,7 x 19.5 cm
•The woman, clearly pregnant, looks at the shocked man with the air of a fait accompli. His panic
and discomfort are evident.
• The addition of the man behind the door, invisible to the couple but seen by the viewer, raising
his finger to his nose, to suggest that the father of the babe is not the old man to whom the girl
is presumably attached.
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Dr Convex & Lady Concave
•Published by Rudolph Ackerman, 20 November 1802. Etching with hand colouring, 25.2 x 20 cm
•A gentle satire on the discrepancies of appearance and status in a couple.
•The figures draw together in complicity.
•The quotation is from Fulke Greville, an Elizabethan courtier and provides justification in the
viewer’s amusement with the figures’ appearance.
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The Pillar of Salt
•Published by Rowlandson in the Adelphi, 11 April 1805.
• Etching with hand colouring 42.3 x 31.2 cm
•William Pitt resigned from government in February 1801 after failing to secure Catholic
emancipation.
•In 1804 he returned to politics, forming an alliance with Henry Addington whom he had previously
attacked.
•But his position, and health were failing.
•He tried to secure an alliance with Russia to ward of the threat of Napoleon but failed to get the
support of the King or Parliament.
•Rowlandson shows Pitt as a pillar of salt on a plinth of Obstinacy, melting under the rays of a
royal crown.
•His rivals Fox and Sheridan predict that he won’t last long and lacks ‘attic salt’ (wit).
•Pitt had been described as obstinate by the King, and had previously increased the tax on salt. He
died, worn out by pressures of office on the 23 January 1806.
•
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Published by Thomas Rowlandson, 16 April 1806.
Etching with hand colouring, 25 x 34.6 cm
Income tax was first introduced into GB by William Pitt in 1799 to fund the defense of the country
against the French. Under Pitt’s successor, the Tory Henry Addington, the tax was lowered and then
raised again to a level of 10% by the Ministry of All Talents (a coalition government) in April
1806.  The move was extremely unpopular. Sir Robert Buxton spoke against the Bill in Parliament,
pointing to the extreme injustice and hardship which the Bill would inflict, to poor and rich
alike. Britain, in the shape of John Bull is pick-pocketed by the new tax, personified as a ‘cursed
ugly devil’, wearing the Prince of Wales feathers(he country wrote off his vast debts)..  Bull
suggests that Billy (Pitt) was nothing compared to this (overlooking the fact that it was Pitt who
created the tax in the first place) and suggests that the tax will allow the rich to thrive at the
expense of the poor.

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Published by Thomas Rowlandson, 21 July 1806Etching with hand colouring, 27.2 x 39.2 cm
Charles James Fox (Master Charley) uses a magic lantern to show a series of slides to John Bull who
stands behind him. Fox is projecting his slides from Dover to Calais. The slide shows Napoleon
blowing a trumpet, with a speech bubble reading “Preliminaries of Peace”. Other slides show
“Messenger from Boulogne”, “Messenger to Paris”, “More Dispatches” and “Huzza”. The slideshow
narrates Fox’s attempts to negotiate peace with France. Following the short-lived Peace of Amiens
(March 1802), there had been renewed hostilities beginning in May 1803, when Britain declared war
in response to France’s involvement in a political crisis in Switzerland. Fearful of invasion, the
British instigated a naval blockade, effectively ending shipping between the two countries, and
alluded to by Rowlandson in the ships in the Channel between the two. Notable  in this conflict was
The Battle of Trafalgar (1805), a victory for the British under Lord Nelson who died during the
fight.
British hopes for a peaceful settlement were shown as flimsy as the ephemeral projections by Fox.
John Bull suspects as much in his heart.

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Published by Rudolph Ackerman, 20 November 1807, Etching and hand colouring, 27.8 x 37.6 cm
The obsessed Antiquarian peers at his collection rather than seeing what is happening around him.
The elderly woman being beautified with the addition of potions and a wig, and lovers canoodling
while they think they are unobserved. The room is well appointed with gilt mirrors and a
gold-framed painting. The man’s collection of antique pots is visible in a cupboard. The cat and
dogs suggest a harmonious domestic environment. It is tempting to see in this print an element of
autobiography as the artist imagines a younger self visiting his aunt and uncles. In fact his uncle
died when Rowlandson was seven years old.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 15 December 1807, Etching and hand colouring, 24.5 x 35.7 cm
The Latin maxim ”Nemo Mortalium omnibus horis sapit” (No mortal is wise at all times) is used by a
learned Scot, to excuse a fit of drunkenness before a magistrate. The magistrate, whose gouty leg
indicates his own excesses, misunderstands the phrase and berates the accused for discussing
‘whores in a saw pit’ before his good wife.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 23 August 1808, Etching with hand colouring, 24.9 x 34.5 cm
Joseph Bonaparte as José I is dressed as the Pope of Fools (a character who was a parody of the
Pope, and who sometimes appeared in the Feast of Fools) his hat ridiculing the Papal taira. Two
Spanish women force-feed him Spanish olives from a bucket, while two men – a British sailor and a
Spanish soldier – urge them on.
Joseph’s installation as King of Spain was against the wishes of the ordinary people rise up
against Bonaparte. The insurrection was supported by the British who sent an expedition to Spain
under Wellington to challenge Napoleon’s hegemony. Rowlandson’s image refers to this alliance
against the French who had suffered a significant defeat when General Pierre Dupont de l’Estang was
forced to surrender to the Spanish rebels on 18th July 1808.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 23 August 1808, Etching and hand colouring, 26.3 x 36.5 cm
A shock-haired Napoleon is faced with resistance on all sides and wonders at his fate..Behind him
is a blast of British thunder,while a Spanish whirlwind knocks Joseph off his throne.
In front, the Russian bear, the Austrian eagle, escaped from a cage,and the Dutch, shown, as was
common in the 18^th-century) as frogs – all challenge the Emperor – ‘napped’ means ‘arrested’ or
‘caught ’but also plays on ‘little Nap’. The print captures the mood of optimism that Napoleon was
beginning to be defeated in Europe.

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“The Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature”, Published by Rudolph Ackermann, Three Volumes
1808-10; Printed Book, 34.3 x 28.2 x 4 cm.
Published in 1810-10 in three volumes, the work consisted in descriptions of notable institutions
by the author William Henry Pyne (1770-1843), with illustrations to accompany each entry, arranged
alphabetically as a sort of Dictionary of London.Illustrations were by Augustus Pugin (1768/9-1832)
who drew the architecture, and Rowlandson, who peopled Pugin’s scenes with figures.
Dedicated by permission to The Prince of Wales.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 7 March 1809, Etching with hand colouring, 24.5 x 35 cm
Gloucester Place was the town house of Mrs Clarke, where she entertained members of high society,
including the Duke of York. Here, Mrs Clarke (the Clarke) and her friend Mrs Taylor (the Taylor)
discuss the ‘List of Promotions’ held by Mrs Clarke. The lovers refer to each other by the
affectionate names that came out at the Duke’s trial. The Duke is dressed in the orange jacket used
to identify him in caricatures of the scandal, and reminds the viewers of the privileged military
position he was supposed to have abused. The quote by John Gilpin contrasts the unfaithful Duke
with the loyal husband Gilpin who admires’ but one’ woman.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 13 March 1809, Etching with hand colouring 25.0 x 35.3 cm
Mrs Clarke is seen spiking a large cannon, rendering it unusable by stopping up the touch hole. The
Duke kneels before her bemoaning his fate, while she admonishes him to make good his retreat,
suggesting he is militarily incompetent as well as sexually exhausted. In the background a ggroup
of soldiers flees a woman beating a drum to the Rogues March by which disgraced soldiers were
drummed out of the army.

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 24 March 1809, Etching and hand colouring, 24.8 x35.2 cm
Although acquitted of receiving money in return for office, The Duke of York resigned on 18 March
1809. Here, John Bull is shown innocently pleading with him not to go, believing him to be a
‘desperate moral character’. The trial was couched in terms of protecting the British Public from
corruption, but in fact his absence was only temporary and he was reinstated in 1811

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Published by Thomas Tegg, 30 March 1809; Etching with hand colouring, 24.8 x 34.5 cm
Aquittted of wrongdoing by a majority of 82 (inscribed on his diligence/dilly) the Duke of York
with his supporters. He could not escape the embarassment of his love letters, revealed in the
trial – and the character on the far right refers to him as ‘my Darling’. The visual reference is
to the Triumph of Petrarch where a series of Virtues are drawn in triumphal procession of
carriages.. Here the Duke is reduced to using a diligence (public carriage) despite his Royal
status. It was popularly believed that the Duke was not innocent of misconduct.

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A New Cock Wanted. Or work for the plumber
•Published by Thomas Tegg Cheapside 20 April 1810.  35 x 25 cm
•A young lover abandoned for a new. A handsome plumber has come to fix an old tap - dating from the
reign of George II.
•The mistress of the house is clearly flirting with him
•The older husband raises his hand to his head, making the sign of the cuckold, and the dog behind
him yowls for his old master.
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John Bull at the Italian Opera
•Published by Thomas Rowlandson, 2 October 1811, Etching and hand colouring, 35.2 x 24.9 cm
•The print plays on the infectious character of yawning. An Italian opera singer with his mouth
open has set a number of those in their boxes to yawn. The orchestra plays grimly on.
•John Bull clenches his fists in the top box, determined to enjoy himself.
•In the 18th-century, Italian opera was the preserve of the élite, but also the object of
xenophobic disdain. The Times described the audience of such spectacles as “dupes to foreign
imposition.’
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Dutch Night-Mare, or the fraternal hug returned with a Dutch Squeeze
•Published by Rudolph Ackermann, 29 November, 1813. Etching with hand colouring, 35.6 x 25.6 cm
•Like the ‘Covent Garden Nightmare’, the print parodies Fuseli’s “Nightmare”.
•Napoleon,, grimacing in a state bed decorated with the French fleur-de-lys, his hat and sword on
the bedside stool, is being squashed by a Dutchman sitting on his chest., declaring “Orange Boven”
(Orange on top) a popular slogan referring to the House of Orange. The Netherlands had been
controlled by Napoleon since 1806 through his brother Louis Bonaparte, and then in 1810, directly.
In 1813, the French withdrew in the wake of their defeat at the battle of Leipzig, thus freeing the
Netherlands from French rule.
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•A Midnight Conversation ( c.1780)

A Midnight Conversation,( c.1780)
Pen and Ink with watercolour over pencil; 29.6 x 44.3cm
The drawing depicts a scene of drunken debauchery. Probably in the private rooms of a tavern. Men
and women are shown in various stages of inebriation, some asleep, some semi-dressed. One lady
vomits into a hat on the floor, dropped by a man asleep on a chair. A character centre holds a
punch bowl as if to drain it. The corroded nose of the bust on the top left alludes to the effects
of syphilis, while the kneeling figure in the painting in the background – a reference to the Lock
Hospital, identified by the sign behind them, the first specialist institution for treating veneral
disease.
Rowlandson bases his drawing loosley  on William Hogarth’s series: “The Rakes Progress” – in the
heaps of bottles in the foreground, the general composition and attitudes of the figures.

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•William Hogarth: “The Rake’s Progress” (1735), etching and engraving, plate three

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Published by Thomas Rowlandson, 12 July, 1806. Etching with hand colouring, 26.5 x 36.9 cm
A satire on Fox’s inclusion in the Ministry of All the Talents (Feb 1806-March 1807), a wartime
coalition administration of national unity formed by Prime Minister William Grenville (1759-1834).
The King had always strongly disliked Fox, but put aside his hostility in the national interest.
The hound to the right, with a collar inscribed “Doctor” is Henry Addington, 1^st Viscount Sidmouth
(1757-1844) who had been Prime Minister brtween 1901 and 1804 and who cooperated with Grenville in
the formation of the “Ministry of All the Talents”.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (saying ‘my darling Reynard) and Richard Grenville also appear among the
hounds who claw at the King’s legs.

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A couple of years after his death, the Edinburgh Literary Journal noted with approval:
“Cruikshank forces us to laugh in spite of ourselves: Rowlandson mingles insurrection with his
merriment, and shows us why we laugh.”