Thomas Rowlandson - John Adam Street, London, UK
N 51° 30.538 W 000° 07.408
30U E 699610 N 5710349
This blue plaque is located on a red brick building on the north west side of John Adam Street in central London.
Waymark Code: WMEFBX
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/21/2012
Views: 5
The blue plaque, for Thomas Rowlandson, reads:
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"London County Council
Thomas
Rowlandson
1757 - 1827
Artist and
Caricaturist
lived in a house
on this site"
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The Spartacus website (visit
link) tells us:
"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.
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."