Preview
Creation Date
Possibly 19th–20th centuries (reproduction), 1808–1810 (original)
Geography
England
Culture
English
Medium
Hand-colored etching and aquatint
Dimensions
Without mat: 4 5/8 × 7 in. (11.7 × 17.8 cm)
Credit Line
Long-term Loan from the Estate of Boris Blick, 2015
Accession Number
2015.52
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
Obverse, beneath image, lower left: "15 Christie's"
Reverse, beneath image, lower left: "16 Sadlers Wells"
Creator Biography
Thomas Rowlandson, English, 1757–1827 (artist).
Augustus Pugin, English, 1762–1832 (artist).
Rudolph Ackermann, German, 1764–1834 (publisher).
Description
Obverse: "Christie's" depicts a crowd of cartoonish figures gathers on the floor of Christie's auction room, with figures examining artwork, talking amongst each other, and bidding on pieces. The auctioneer stands at the podium, gesturing to his right with his gavel in hand, where a painting is being handled. Paintings in gilt frames line the walls of the room.
Reverse: “Sadlers Wells” depicts a theater (Sadlers Wells Theatre) decorated in blues and yellows with red curtains, crowded with spectators seated on the ground level and in three levels of box seats. Some of these spectators look at the stage while others look over their shoulders and at other people in the audience. The perspective of the print looks out from the second level of box seats over the stage on which a character is being pulled through a waterscape on a chariot.
“Christie’s” is from the first and “Sadlers Wells” the third of the three volumes of The Microcosm of London, or, London in miniature. Published between 1808 and 1810 by Rudolph Ackermann, William Henry Pyne wrote descriptions of selected London institutions which were paired with illustrations by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson, with Pugin producing the architecture and Rowlandson populating that architecture with figures.
An original print of “Christie’s” can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.3.1167-146. An original print of “Sadlers Wells” can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museum, S.1145-2015.
This print appears to be a page taken from the same book as 2015.30.
Reverse