The New International Encyclopædia/Rowlandson, Thomas

ROWLANDSON, Thomas (1756-1827). An English artist and caricaturist, born in Old Jewry, London. He early displayed skill in caricature, was a student at the Royal Academy, and afterwards at a drawing-school in Paris, and set up in London as a portrait-artist. In 1777-81 he also exhibited landscapes and portraits with much success at the Royal Academy. In 1781 or thereabouts he assumed to greater extent the manner of caricature. He was known for his representations of Napoleon, but more particularly for his series, including the “Tours of Dr. Syntax” (1812, 1820, 1821), “The English Dance of Death” (1815-16), and “The Dance of Life” (1816), all with text by William Combe. His work was chiefly in pen-and-ink, lightly washed or retouched in water-colors. His humorous quality included the picturesque, for example in posting and driving scenes at the inn or on the highroad. In attempts along other lines he was unmistakably inferior. It has been frequently asserted that his technical merits and originality might well have entitled him to occupy a more serious place in the history of English art. Consult: Wright, History of Caricature and the Grotesque in Art (London, 1845)); and Grego, Rowlandson the Caricaturist (ib., 1880), with a detailed enumeration of the artist's works.