Preview
Creation Date
Possibly 19th–20th centuries (reproduction), ca. 1820 (original)
Geography
England
Culture
English
Medium
Hand-colored etching and aquatint
Dimensions
Without mat: 3 3/16 × 5 3/8 in. (8.1 × 13.6 cm)
Credit Line
Long-term Loan from the Estate of Boris Blick, 2015
Accession Number
2015.47
Provenance
According to Professor Sarah Blick, this print was purchased by Boris Blick from Stagecoach Antiques (now closed) in Akron, Ohio.
Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings
Bottom margin, lower center: "DṞ SYNTAX AND BOOKSELLER."
Pencil writing on back of print: "1820's Rowlandson / original handcolouring / £10-"
Creator Biography
Thomas Rowlandson, English, 1757–1827 (artist).
William Combe, English, 1742–1823 (writer).
Description
Cartoonish figures wreak havoc in a bookshop. An older man in black confronts a large, rotund man about a book, while a man on a stool facing the bookshelves that line the walls flings several books into the air. At the foot of the stool, a bystander cowers as the books fall; a large woman drinks at a table in the nook in the lefthand corner of the composition.
From The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque by William Combe, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson. Published first in 1809, its popularity led to its publication in book form in 1812 as the first of what would become three books written as comic poems satirizing William Gilpin and his promotion of the picturesque. These books have been digitized by The Public Domain Review, where a version of this print within The Tour of Doctor Syntax can be seen on page 199.
An original print can be found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986-6-26.