Thomas Rowlandson

English, 1756–1827

Church Interior with Figures; Women & Children in Shop, c. 1790

graphite, ink wash on paper

11.5 x 18.2 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Gift from the Estate of Arnold O. Brigden

G-73-517

Categories:

Drawing, Works on Paper

Thomas Rowlandson studied at the Royal Academy School in London with the intention of pursuing a career as a watercolourist. He made several tours of England as well as the Continent, producing sketches of the people and places he visited, which were then published. He worked in the watercolour medium, producing mainly genre scenes and portraits, and quickly developed a reputation as a caricaturist. Rowlandson aimed to communicate the personality of his subjects, often exaggerating their gestures and facial features in an attempt to capture their personal demeanour. This drawing of people looking at tombs inside a church is one of several works by Rowlandson in the WAG collection. His designs, like this drawing, would normally be made in outline with reed pen and wash, etched by the artist on a copper plate, then aquatinted, with the final impressions coloured by hand.