the Fourth--the "Modern Paris" who has the difficult task of awarding
the apple. The Prince re-appears in Rowlandson's famous print of
"Vauxhall Gardens" (published by J. R. Smith in 1785) with a star upon
his breast, where he is paying much attention to Mrs. Robinson--the
lovely "Perdita," whose portrait now hangs in the Wallace Collection.
The Duchess of Devonshire and her sister, Lady Duncannon, are well in
the centre of the picture; Captain Topham takes in the gay scene through
his glass; Doctor Johnson, in a supper box, seems deeply engaged upon
his meal, though Mrs. Thrale is on his right and "Bozzy" and Goldsmith
are of the party. Captain (later Colonel) Topham, the _macaroni_, man of
taste and editor of _The World_, appears in another plate of 1785--as
"Captain Epilogue," and as "Colonel Topham endeavouring to extinguish
the Genius of Holman" (the actor); and to the same date belong "Grog on
Board" and "Tea on Shore," as well as the print in colour chosen for
illustration to this chapter.
"Filial Affection," as this is called, depicting a runaway trip to
Gretna Green, speaks so fully for itself that it needs no further
description from my pen; but I may mention here its companion print
(also published by Mr. Hinton on December 15 of 1785), and called "The
Reconciliation, or The Return from Scotland," in which the pair of
fugitives--whom we have just seen presenting their horse pistols at the
parental _poursuivant_--have now returned, all penitence and submission,
and have won their forgiveness. A very curious and somewhat grisly
adaptation of "Filial Affection" is reproduced by Messrs. Bell, to
illustrate the article upon Rowlandson in their new and valuable edition
of _Bryan's Dictionary_. It is a plate from _The Dance of Death_, an
illustrated volume published by Ackermann in 1815, and resembles the
earlier print--save that the figure behind the angry parent is a
skeleton rider mounted on a skeleton steed. At this point, in touching
these two periods (of 1785 and 1815) we may note how far fresher and
more spontaneous is the figure-work in that rich period from 1785
onwards. Rowlandson had gained, perhaps, in what we may call his "Dr.
Syntax period," in the treatment of landscape perspective or the massing
of crowds, but had become more of the caricaturist, had lost the rich
organic beauty which really irradiates some of his earlier prints.
=FILIAL AFFECTION. By Thomas Rowlandson.=
A print in colour from my own collection, published by Fores only
sixteen days earlier (November 30, 1785) than "Filial Affection," may
help here to illustrate my meaning. "Intrusion on Study" or "The
Painter Disturbed," shows a very charming model, attired in nothing but
the prettiest of mob caps, posing for some goddess on the canvas of the
artist, who turns to wave his palette and brushes--a most effective
weapon of defence--in the faces of two unwelcome visitors of his own
sex, who have just broken in open-mouthed upon his study. The details of
the studio, the expressive faces of the artist and his visitors
(especially the second), are in Rowlandson's best mood; but what is more
interesting, because more exceptional, is the exquisite feeling of line,
as subtle as anything Beardsley has recorded, in the girl's recumbent
figure--in the flow of the shoulder into the right arm, and in the sweep
of the right hip, and faultless drawing of the right hand--which touches
a note of purely plastic beauty entirely beyond the reach of either
Hogarth or Gillray.
Joseph Grego says of our artist very justly: "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 Morland, and as such,
it is possible, since the caricaturist is so little known in this
branch, that many continue to pass current."[15] An engraving which came
into my own hands, some years ago, of three young girls by Rowlandson,
might be an exact illustration of these words, and as the above writer
says, be a portrait group by Gainsborough or Hoppner--so refined and yet
so masterly was the treatment. I alluded to this print with others, when
speaking of Rowlandson as what might be here called a "feminist" in my
study of Bartolozzi and his contemporaries, and found illustration there
of this peculiarly charming type of his women in "Luxury" (typified, for
this artist, by breakfast in bed), "House Breakers," "The Inn Yard on
Fire" (where the ladies are making a very impromptu exit), in the lovely
model of "The Artist Disturbed," and (for women of fashion) in the
series (twelve prints in all) of the "Comforts of Bath."
I mention there, too, that delightful print of "Lady Hamilton at Home,"
where poor Sir William (whom the caricaturists never neglected) is
suffering from an acute attack of gout, while "the lovely Emma, in very
classic garb, is watering a flower-pot, and Miss Cornelia Knight, also
dressed after the antique, touches the strings of a lyre, and warbles
poems of her own composition." In treating, however, of Rowlandson's
women, other prints, such as "Tastes Differ," "Opera Boxes," "Harmony,"
"A Nap in Town," and "In the Country," "Interruption, or Inconvenience
of a Lodging House" (published April 1789), and "Damp Sheets" (August
1791), have a strong claim on our notice. Nor must I entirely neglect
here Rowlandson's print called "Preparation for the Academy, or Old
Joseph Nollekens and his Venus" (1800). It is perhaps the Miss Coleman
here upon the model-stand who nearly caused a domestic breach between
old Nollekens and his jealous spouse--the group on which he is at work
being his "Venus Chiding Cupid," which was modelled for Lord Yarborough.
_The Life of the Sculptor Nollekens_, by his pupil John Thomas Smith,
contains some amusing contemporary gossip. He describes the sculptor
much as we see him in this plate--his figure short, his head big, his
shoulders narrow, his body too large. His worthy better half held strong
opinions upon the sculptor's models--"abandoned hussies, with whom she
had no patience"; and Miss Coleman having ventured to visit the scene of
her early labours in a carriage and pair, the wrath of the virtuous Mrs.
Nollekens became unbounded. Words indeed (perhaps a rare defect with the
good lady) seem to have failed her at this crisis; in a later interview
with Joseph they were not wanting.
=_By Thomas Rowlandson_ A BALL AT THE HACKNEY ASSEMBLY ROOMS (REMEMBER
THE GRACES!)=
But here I would also point out that not only was our caricaturist an
unequalled illustrator of lovely woman (and as such makes us often
regret that the becoming mob cap has disappeared from use), but also a
magnificent landscape artist. I came to notice this especially last year
in a very interesting exhibition of Rowlandson's drawings at the
Leicester Gallery in London. "A Country Fete," a "Village Scene with
Bridge," and the "Promenade on Richmond Hill," were good examples of his
delightful handling of English landscape. The last of these formed part
of a very interesting set of the artist's original drawings, which were
not exhibited, but which I was able to study by kind permission.
"Greenwich Park" was among these drawings, with merrymakers racing and
tumbling down the hill, and a delicious perspective of the park and
hospital; a "Review of Guards in Hyde Park," where, upon the soldiers
firing, two of the spectators' horses have bolted into the crowd; the
charming drawing in pencil and colour work of two girls called "The
Sirens;" rustic scenes such as "Eel Pie Island at Richmond," "Playing
Quoits," and a "Rustic Maid Crossing a Stile," to her sweetheart's
admiration; such echoes too of war as the crowd cheering the great
battleships at Portsmouth, or the print of "Invaders Repulsed," where
British troops are seen driving out the French invaders.
Drawn most delicately in pencil with a wash of pure colour, these
drawings bring us nearer to the feeling of the artist than even his
prints, and it was interesting to compare "Greenwich Hill" in the print
and drawing, and to see how much the transcript had lost. Yet seen by
themselves the prints were interesting and characteristic. "A Visit to
the Uncle" and "to the Aunt," "Travelling in France, 1790"--a signed
work showing a large clumsy diligence, which the artist is
sketching--"Angelo's Fencing Room," full of contemporary portraits, "The
Pleasure of the Country," where fine ladies struggling through the mud
find a litter of piglets rushing in among their skirts, were among the
best of these, while a print of "Girls Dressing for the Masquerade," and
the "Dutch Academy," with a fat model posing before solid Dutchmen,
were among those not infrequent prints of our artist whose satire comes
near--if not over--the confines of good taste.
=_By Thomas Rowlandson_ A THEATRICAL CANDIDATE=
Some clever prints of Dr. Syntax himself were here--a subject this
which, published by Ackermann under the title of a "Tour of Dr. Syntax
in search of the Picturesque" in 1809, was republished in 1812, and
occupied the artist in various developments during his later life. To
the same period of Rowlandson's career belonged "The Microcosm of
London" (1808), "A Mad Dog in a Coffee House" (1809), and "In a Dining
Room" (1809), the print called "Exhibition Stare-case, Somerset House"
(1811)--where the visitors of both sexes are tumbling headlong
downstairs, the extraordinary cleverness of drawing scarcely
compensating for the doubtful taste of the subject; and later followed
"The World in Miniature" (1816), "Richardson's Show," "The English Dance
of Death" (1814-16), and "Dance of Life" (1817), which leads on to the
later "Tour of Dr. Syntax in search of Consolation" (1820), and (1821)
"In search of a Wife." Although Fores of Piccadilly seems to have
published many of our artist's prints during the last years of the
eighteenth century, throughout his whole career Rudolph Ackermann
remained his constant friend; to the suggestion of this latter was due
the idea of a monthly publication, which gave Rowlandson regular
employment in his later years, and resulted in the series of prints
which I have just detailed, among which the quaint, angular form of Dr.
Syntax, with his thin legs, black coat and breeches, and hooked nose,
claims a prominent place.
These subjects lead us already into the early nineteenth century, and,
as doing so, fall outside our present limit; but Rowlandson himself
belongs in his art, as much as Bunbury or Gillray, to the earlier age.
An artist of extraordinary genius, we have it on record that two
successive Presidents of the Academy in his day, Sir Joshua Reynolds and
Sir Benjamin West, in expressing their admiration of his drawings, added
their opinion that, had he chosen a higher branch of art, he might have
stood in the forefront of English contemporary painting. Instead of this
he preferred to devote his genius and his best years to caricature, and
in doing so, has bequeathed to us a rich and most precious heritage.
He was happy in his friendships. James Gillray was well known to him;
George Morland, that brilliant artist with whom he had so much in
common, Henry Angelo, whom he loved to depict among his pupils of the
foil ("Angelo's Fencing Room" and "Signora Cigali Fencing at Angelo's"),
Bannister, and Ackermann the art publisher were among his intimates. He
was less happy in the conduct of his life. Extravagance and carelessness
were combined with a passion for gambling which made him a frequent
figure in the fashionable playhouses of London; and these habits
placed the fortune, which should have been his by industry and
inheritance, beyond his reach. The legacy of L7000 bequeathed him by his
French aunt, who had treated him so generously in his student days, was
speedily dissipated in this way. Indeed, but for the frequent advice and
assistance of his friend and publisher, Rudolph Ackermann, he might have
found himself in serious difficulties; and the story runs that on one
occasion he sat for thirty-six hours at the cards, and that on another,
after losing all he had, he sat down coolly to his work and (raising
that facile pencil of his) said, "Here is my resource." Thus it was
that, after many years of fertile labour, he died a poor man in lodgings
at the Adelphi, on the 22nd of April, 1827. His faithful friends of
earlier days, Henry Angelo, Bannister, and Rudolph Ackermann, followed
to his grave the last great caricaturist of the bygone century.
=_By Thomas Rowlandson_ OLD JOSEPH NOLLEKENS AND HIS VENUS=
In these pages we have traced together the record of that century in
English Caricature; and if we have been compelled to note but hastily
the lesser men, have, in so doing, at least gained breathing space to
study four great and typical figures. We saw how William Hogarth, when
he handles the graver as humourist and delineator of character, stands
forth immortally great; how, when he sought to place himself at the head
of the nascent English School, he fell beneath his own level. We saw in
Henry William Bunbury the cultured artist, soldier, and man of society,
the welcome guest in many a great country-house, who could bring his
host's pretty daughters into some charming sketch, or take his part in
the improvised theatricals; but whose prints have real humour, charm,
and the sweet, wholesome breath of English country life. Then we watched
Gillray tower aloft in political satire, and Rowlandson's pencil touch
every side of life.
If we noticed at the same time a certain coarseness of fibre come to the
surface in much of their work, finding expression often both in subject,
and still more in treatment and in type, we must remember that this
quality belongs not to the men alone, but to the age. The more sensitive
modern may feel himself at first repelled rather than attracted, and
many a print of Rowlandson or Gillray find a place in his _Index
Expurgatorius_; but the brutality of these men is the brutality of
Nature in some of her moods, and their work, like Nature, fertile,
fresh, and vigorous, attracts us (as all strong work will and must) the
more we study it by its masterly drawing, its free, open humour, and
often its high imaginative grasp.
Behind these men, these Masters of English Caricature, appears, never
entirely absent from our thought, the history of the century, with its
magnificent record of English achievement. Behind them, too, a
corrective and a stimulant to their best effort, is that wonderful
revelation of English eighteenth-century pictorial art. For just as
when, in years to come, men think on that stirring epoch, the two words
_England_ and _Liberty_ will leap unbidden to their thought; so, too,
in the record of the greatest epoch of our country's art, a place must
be found for the English Caricaturists of the Eighteenth Century.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
London & Edinburgh
Footnotes:
[1] A fine collection of lithographs of Honore Daumier (1808-1879) has
this year been exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
[2] "The Works of William Hogarth, elucidated by Descriptions." By T.
Clerk. London, 1810.
[3] "William Hogarth," by Austin Dobson; with a valuable technical
introduction by Sir W. Armstrong. London, 1902.
[4] "Bartolozzi and his Pupils in England" (Langham Series). By Selwyn
Brinton. London, 1903.
[5] "History of Caricature and of Grotesque in Art." By Thomas Wright,
M.A., F.S.A. London, 1863.
[6] His "Englishman at Paris" even predates this by four years (1767).
The British Museum etchings, to which I allude later, are early work,
one even dating from his schooldays at Westminster!
[7] _Op. cit._ p. 63.
[8] I give a plate of this beautiful Eliza Farren (painted by Lawrence,
engraved by Bartolozzi) in my work on Bartolozzi in this Series (facing
p. 63). Gillray has an amusing print of the diminutive Lord Derby,
standing on his coronet to admire himself in the glass.
[9] They are all enjoying their new diet under similar conditions. In
Italy (perhaps the cleverest hit of all) the old Pope, seated, is having
the bread shot into his open mouth from a French soldier's blunderbuss,
while an assistant at the same moment neatly removes from his head the
triple crown.
[10] Mme. Vigee le Brun, in her delightful memoirs, gives some
justification to Gillray's severe treatment. Visiting Lady Hamilton soon
after Sir William's death she found "this Andromache" draped in black,
and extremely fat.
[11] In "Two-penny Whist" appear the worthy Mrs. Humphrey and her maid
Betty; in "Push-pin" the Duke of Queensbury and the Duchess of Gordon.
[12] _The Magazine of Art_, 1901.
[13] Rudolph Ackermann occupies almost the same position to Rowlandson
that Mistress Humphrey did to Gillray, as his early and faithful friend
and principal publisher.
[14] _Bartolozzi and His Pupils in England_, p. 46.
[15] _Rowlandson, the Caricaturist._ By Joseph Grego. 1880.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
Illustration captions are represented by =caption=.
Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
presented in the original text.
Missing quotation marks have been added.
Misprint "and and" corrected to "and" (page 82).
Otherwise, text matches original printing.