Thomas Rowlandson, the son of a successful businessman, was born in
London in July 1756. Thomas learnt to draw
before he could write and by the time he was ten he was spending all
his free time drawing. After attending Eton he became a student at
the Royal Academy. At sixteen he left for
France where he spent two years at a drawing school in Paris.
In 1777 Rowlandson opened a studio in Wardour Street where he established
himself as a portrait painter. Rowlandson also travelled a great deal
in Europe where he drew pictures of his experiences. Rowlandson became
friends with James Gillray, the leading
caricaturist in London. Rowlandson was a heavy gambler and after losing
the money he inherited from a rich aunt, he paid his debts with drawings
of popular and low-life subjects.
Thomas
Rowlandson, The Westminster Election (1808)
In the
1780s Rowlandson painted fewer portraits and tended to concentrate
on drawing. Rowlandson had his work published in journals such as
the English Review and The Poetical Magazine. Rowlandson
also illustrated books, including those written by Henry
Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith and Laurence Sterne. Rowlandson also
worked with Tobias George Smollett, whose radical books resulted in
him being sent to prison for libel. Some of Rowlandson's political
cartoons also got him in trouble and he was accused by his critics
of being "coarse and indelicate".
In 1808 Rowlandson began working with Rudolph
Ackermann, a talented lithographer, who had started publishing
a series of attractive colour-plate books. This included The
Microcosm of London, a book published in three volumes between
1808 and 1811. The text of the first two volumes was written by William
Pyne and the third volume by William Combe. The
Microcosm of London was illustrated with 104 hand-coloured
aquatint plates. Whereas Augustus Pugin
supplied the drawings of the buildings, it was Rowlandson's task to
paint the people in the pictures.
Like many people in England, Rowlandson was horrified by the way the
authorities treated the people who attended the meeting at St. Peter's
Field, Manchester on 16th August, 1819, to hear Henry
'Orator' Hunt speak on parliamentary reform. As a result of the
Peterloo Massacre, Rowlandson drew one
of his most overtly political drawings. Thomas
Rowlandson
died on 22nd April 1827.
Thomas
Rowlandson, Mounted Cavalry Charging a Crowd (1819)
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