Connoisseurs

 

Thomas Rowlandson

 

1799  

hand colored etching 

9 5/8 x 7 5/8" image; 11 x 8-5/8" platemark 

signature incised in the plate in lower right 

 

handwritten in brown ink in old script in unknown hand (possibly Rowlandson): to R. Ackermann No. 101 Strand London; dated 1799 in plate in lower left and titled in plate in lower margin 

Grego, Rowlandson the Caricaturist, described on pages 364 and 366 

ivory wove 

published 

Thomas Rowlandson on June 20, 1799 

BYMC226 

SOLD

Joseph Grego describes this scene: "The interior of a cabinet of choice works of art. On an easel is displyed a florid and somewhat suggestive picture of Venus and Cupid richly framed. An old connoisseur, with a glass to his eye, and his three-cornered hat under his arm, is seated in an easy elbow chair, critically examining the work in question. Three other distinguished dilettanti are peering over his back, and stretching their noses as near as contrivable to the object of their gloating admiration. All these amateurs have evidently called in to view the collection, which includes an example after 'Susanna and the Elders,' and kindred subjects."