Rowlandson’s comic art at the Queen’s Gallery, London - 2016 exhibition

Doctor Convex and Lady Concave
by Thomas Rowlandson (1802)

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) was one of the greatest caricaturists of his time. The exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery – High Spirits – was all about his comic art and included nearly 100 of his prints and drawings. The exhibition ended on 14 February 2016, but you can still enjoy it on this blog.

High Spirits exhibition at the Queen's Gallery,
Buckingham Palace, London

Here is the promotional video for the exhibition narrated by Brian Blessed. It is a lovely introduction to the subject of Thomas Rowlandson's art and caricatures in general.

There is a comprehensive book that accompanies the exhibition which includes all the prints and pictures on display (and a few more besides) together with the background and provenance for each.

 

The fashion for caricatures

Before I start telling you about the exhibition, I have a confession to make. I am not a huge fan of caricatures—they are very Georgian, but not always to my taste. Rowlandson’s cartoons are often quite ugly and frequently bawdy. However, I appreciate their cleverness even when I’m not keen on the pictures and I did find some prints in the exhibition that I liked.

A wall of Rowlandson prints at the exhibition

Caricatures were a great source of amusement to rich and poor alike. It was fashionable to collect prints and display them on a wall or screen or keep them in an album. Showing off your print collection was a popular after dinner entertainment. If you couldn’t afford to build up your own portfolio, then you could hire one from a print shop for the evening to share with your guests. If that was beyond your means, you could still enjoy spotting the royals and politicians lampooned in cartoon form by gazing at the latest prints on display in the print shop window.

I'm looking at a screen at the exhibition covered
 with cut-outs of Thomas Rowlandson prints
 which dates from c1806

A close-up of the print screen shown above

Everyday life

Many of Rowlandson’s prints were social satires – taking a humorous view of daily life and topics that were in the news. Rowlandson was fond of depicting opposites - such as Doctor Convex and Lady Concave at the top of the page and the very streamlined outline of Buck's Beauty contrasting with the curves of Rowlandson's Connoisseur below.

Buck's Beauty and Rowlandson's Connoisseur
by Thomas Rowlandson (c1799)

Three Principal Requisites to form a Modern Man of Fashion
by Thomas Rowlandson (1814)

Overset by Thomas Rowlandson (c1790)

Rowlandson delighted in caricaturing current events, such as the news that Richard Brinsley Sheridan was going to pull down the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in order to build a bigger one. Rowlandson depicted this as the theatre tumbling down during a performance.

Chaos is Come Again! by Thomas Rowlandson (1791)

Ridiculing the royals

George III and his family were frequently the subject of Rowlandson’s cartoons. His caricatures included prints about George III's illness of 1788-9; George, Prince of Wales' bad behaviour; and the Mrs Clarke scandal of 1809 involving the Duke of York. During the Mrs Clarke scandal, Rowlandson produced an incredible 27 caricatures in little over 6 weeks!

Money Lenders [featuring the young George IV]
by Thomas Rowlandson (1784)

Suitable Restrictions [for a regency] by Thomas Rowlandson (1789)

Yorkshire Hieroglyphics by Thomas Rowlandson (1809)
[depicting a love letter from the Duke of York to Mrs Clarke in pictures]

A York address to the Whale. Caught lately off Gravesend.
[The Duke of York pleads with the whale to distract the public
from the Mrs Clarke scandal] by Thomas Rowlandson (1809)

Political satire

Rowlandson began producing political caricatures around 1780. The battle between the Whigs led by Fox and the Tories led by Pitt gave ample scope for his wicked wit. His series of prints on the Westminster Election of 1784, published by William Humphrey, was particularly successful, firmly establishing him as one of the leading satirists of his day.

The Devonshire or Most Approved Method of Securing Votes
by Thomas Rowlandson (1784)
 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, is shown kissing a butcher
 in order to secure his vote for Fox.

Views of England and other works of art

In addition to all the caricatures, a number of Rowlandson's other works were on display. These included book illustrations from Ackermann’s Microcosm of London and An excursion to Brighthelmstone made in the year 1789. This volume included what was probably my favourite picture in the whole exhibition – that of the bathing machines at Brighton pictured below.

Bathing Machines by Thomas Rowlandson in An excursion
to Brighthelmstone made in the year 1789 by H Wigstead (1790)

Christie's Auction Room from The Microcosm of London
published by R Ackermann (1808)and illustrated by Augustus
Pugin [the architecture] and Thomas Rowlandson [the people].

The paintings in the exhibition included this one, featuring George III returning from a hunting trip.

King George III returning from hunting through Eton
by Thomas Rowlandson (c1800)

A Georgian connection with the Dutch paintings

Having examined the Rowlandson exhibition thoroughly, we decided to take a quick look round the exhibition of Dutch paintings which ran alongside it. Although these were pre-Georgian, mostly dating from the 17th century, there was a Georgian connection. Many of the paintings were acquired by George IV and prints of various rooms in Carlton House and Windsor Castle from Pyne’s The History of the Royal Residences showed the paintings had been displayed. One or two of the paintings in the exhibition were even identifiable in the prints.

An Old Woman called The Artist's Mother
by Rembrandt van Rijn (1627)

The King's Drawing Room, Windsor Castle
from The History of the Royal Residences by WH Pyne (1819).
The Old Woman is on display to the right of the doorway.

There was also a small selection of Sèvres porcelain on display.

Chocolatière from the Sèvres
porcelain factory (1777)
Acquired by George IV in 1815.

Pot-pourri à vaisseau or pot-pourri en navire
from the Sèvres porcelain factory (1758-9).
It is extremely likely that this item was originally
owned by Madame de Pompadour,
mistress of King Louis XV of France.

In summary, High Spirits was a great little exhibition and the exhibition book details all the works of art on display.

All photos © Regencyhistory.net except Money Lenders and The Devonshire © The Royal Collection.
All prints and objects © HM Queen Elizabeth II.

 

 

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

Georgians celebrated in London statues

Trafalgar Square, London

Although I live down by the sea in sunny Weymouth in Dorset, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to visit London on a regular basis as my parents live a short train journey away from the capital. Walking through the streets of London, I always try to spot things with a Georgian connection and my husband, Andrew, obligingly takes lots of photos for me.

This post takes a look at some of the statues in London that commemorate Georgian royalty and other prominent figures. It is by no means an exhaustive list and no doubt I will discover more in the future.

George III and George IV

Let us start with royalty. There are impressive equestrian statues in London of both George III (1738-1820) and George IV (1762-1830) situated within a short distance of each other. George III, by the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt, is on Cockspur Street—a two minute walk away from Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey’s statue in Trafalgar Square, where George IV sits astride his horse in front of the National Gallery.

Equestrian statue of George III,
Cockspur Street, London

Equestrian statue of George III,
Cockspur Street, London

Equestrian statue of George IV,
Trafalgar Square, London

Detail from equestrian statue of George IV,
Trafalgar Square, London

Two commemorative columns

At the top of his column in Trafalgar Square is the famous naval hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson (1758-1805). But perhaps lesser known is the Duke of York column, just off The Mall, supporting a statue of Frederick, Duke of York (1763-1827), George III’s second son, who was Commander in Chief of the British Army 1795-1809 and 1811-1827.

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, London

Statue of Admiral Horatio Lord
 Nelson on Nelson's Column,
 Trafalgar Square, London

Duke of York Column,
The Mall, London

Statue of Frederick, Duke of York,
on Duke of York Column, The Mall, London

Artists and architects

Appropriately, there is a statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), the first President of the Royal Academy, in the courtyard of Burlington House on Piccadilly, home to the Royal Academy since 1874.

Statue of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London

On the outside of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours on Piccadilly, you can see the busts of famous artists including JMW Turner (1775-1851) and Paul Sandby (1731-1809), one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.

Bust of JMW Turner, Piccadilly, London

Bust of Paul Sandby, Piccadilly, London

In 1956, a bust of the architect John Nash (1752-1835) was erected outside All Souls Langham Place—a church that he had designed.

Bust of John Nash, outside
All Souls Langham Place, London

Fashionable Regency figures remembered

The statue of Beau Brummell (1778-1840) on Jermyn Street is relatively new—it was only erected in 2002. It seems a fitting site for Beau—looking down the Piccadilly Arcade with its superior shops selling everything for the gentleman of fashion, from made-to-measure suits and footwear to jewellery and grooming products.

Statue of Beau Brummell,
Jermyn Street, London

Statue of Beau Brummell, Jermyn Street, London

Statue of Beau Brummell,
Jermyn Street, London

Statue of Beau Brummell, Jermyn Street, London

Statue of Beau Brummell,
Jermyn Street, London

The famous Romantic poet, Lord Byron (1788-1824), is commemorated by a somewhat isolated statue in a very unromantic position on a traffic island on the hugely busy Park Lane.

Statue of Lord Byron, Park Lane, London

An economist and an explorer

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher. He wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776—it was still on the reading list when I studied economics at university! You can find his statue on the rear of Burlington House.

Statue of Adam Smith,
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was a naval captain, explorer and cartographer. His statue was erected on The Mall in 1914.

Statue of Captain James Cook,
The Mall, London

Politicians

An equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), military hero of the Battle of Waterloo and British Prime Minister stands on Threadneedle Street, outside the Bank of England.

Equestrian statue of 1st Duke of Wellington,
Threadneedle Street, London

Equestrian statue of 1st Duke of Wellington,
Threadneedle Street, London

Another Georgian Prime Minister, George Canning (1770-1827), stands in Parliament Square along with several of his successors, including Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850).

George Canning, Parliament Square, London

Sir Robert Peel,
Parliament Square, London

A statue of the Whig politician Charles James Fox (1749-1806) stands in Bloomsbury Square Gardens. He holds a copy of the Magna Carta in his hand, signifying his role as the 'Man of the People'.

Statue of Charles James Fox,
Bloomsbury Square, London

A philanthropist and an evangelical

Thomas Coram (1668-1751) set up the Foundling Hospital in 1741. His statue is outside the Foundling Museum on Brunswick Square, London.

Statue of Thomas Coram,
Brunswick Square, London

John Wesley (1703-1791) was an evangelical Anglican minister who, together with his brother Charles and George Whitefield, founded the Methodist movement. His statue stands in the gardens of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Statue of John Wesley,
outside St Paul's Cathedral, London

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 

All photographs © RegencyHistory.net