DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756-1827)
FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION 2025
24TH FEBRUARY TO 7TH MARCH 2025
Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm
Weekends and evenings by appointment
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART
Riverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard
Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7930 3839
Mobile: +44 (0) 7956 968284 guy@peppiattfineart.co.uk www.peppiattfineart.co.uk
Front Cover: (1) Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
An Accident out Hunting
Rear Cover: (4) Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
A Tea Table Catastrophe
The Georgian period was the heyday of the caricature in England, and Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray were its two most famous protagonists. The late eighteenth and early nineteeth centuries were rich with potential targets with frequent subjects being the Royal Family and especially the Prince of Wales, the future George IV; politicians and notably Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox; the aristocracy with the Duchess of Devonshire ; and the French, and famously Napoleon.
While Gillray’s caricatures were frequently political, Rowlandson enjoyed gently poking fun at everyday life and what he saw around him. Gillray’s satire was more serious and the humour often more vicious but you get a feeling of Rowlandson the man and his sense of humour from his work. Gillray was essentially a printmaker and few original drawings by him survive but Rowlandson was a masterful draughtsman in pencil pen and ink who sketched everything he saw with wonderful speed and facility, adding watercolour afterwards. He loved drawing an accident whether it be a cart or carriage being upturned, someone falling off a horse, drinks being spilt or something catching fire. Nothing escaped his beady eye - the fat, the thin, the rich, the poor, the old man and the young woman, he satirised them all.
Rowlandson was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy Schools aged sixteen and he feels very much a London artist – he lived in the city all his life and we know he enjoyed all it had to offer, drinking and eating to excess and enjoying a gamble. He found much of his subject matter in the streets, pubs and salons of London. He was a social observer and nothing escaped his beady eye. Indeed we can learn a lot about everyday life in Georgian England from his work.
He travelled extensively in Britain with his sketchbook in hand and also visited the Continent when Napoleonic Wars allowed. He is underrated as an artist of landscape and countryside. His pure landscapes, often of Cornwall where he would visit his friend and patron Matthew Michell, have an elegiac quality with wonderful rococo lines. He often depicts hunting or horse-racing scenes or carriages outside country pubs.
It is a pleasure to offer for sale this group of drawings and watercolours from a private collection mainly bought from London dealers and auction houses in the 1970s and 1980s. The group shows the range of Rowlandson’s work from dramatic disasters (nos.1, 4 and 5), Continental scenes (nos.3, 6 and 7), elegant single figures (no.8), hunting subjects (1 and 2) to country scenes (2, 9 and 10) and studies for prints (no.13 and 14).
Guy Peppiatt
‘Study of Thomas Rowlandson aged 70 in the Print Room of the British Museum’ by John Thomas Smith (1766-1833), Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum 1816 to 1833
Image courtesy of The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959, Metropolitan Museum, New York
An Accident out Hunting
Pen and grey ink and watercolour over touches of pencil 11 by 18.4 cm., 4 ¼ by 7 ¼ in.
£6,500
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
2
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) Before the Hunt
Pen and brown and grey ink and watercolour over touches of pencil
20.5 by 28 cm., 8 by 11 in.
Provenance: A ‘nobleman’, his sale, Sotheby’s, London, 12th July 1984, lot 79, where bought by the present owner
£6,750
3
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
The Connoisseurs –Englishmen viewing Pictures on the Grand Tour
Signed lower left: Rowlandson. 1790
Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil on laid paper
21.5 by 19 cm., 8 ½ by 7 ½ in.
Provenance: With Richard Green and Frank T. Sabin, London, where bought by the present owner, circa 1980
SOLD
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
A Tea Table Catastrophe
Pen and grey ink and watercolour, with watermark 1817 10.7 by 18.4 cm., 4 ¼ by 7 ¼ in.
Provenance: With Frank T Sabin, London; Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 25th November 1986, lot 69, where bought by the present owner
£5,000
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
A Doleful Disaster, or Miss Fubby Fatarmin’s Wig Caught Fire
Pen and ink and watercolour 14 by 23 cm., 5 ½ by 9 in.
Provenance: With Arthur Ackermann, London, where bought by the present owner, 1989
Literature:
Arthur Ackermann & Son, Thomas Rowlandson and his Constant Friend, Mr Ackermann, An Exhibition of Watercolours, Drawings and Prints, 1989, p.10, no.9, ill.
Exhibited:
London, Arthur Ackermann & Son, Thomas Rowlandson and his Constant Friend, Mr Ackermann, An Exhibition of Watercolours, Drawings and Prints, 7 – 30th June 1989, no.9
A print of this subject after Rowlandson was published by Thomas Tegg on 20th September 1813.
£6,500
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Fashions at Venice
Pen and grey ink and watercolour over pencil
14.6 by 23.5 cm., 5 ¾ by 9 ¼ in.
Provenance:
With Richard Green and Frank T. Sabin, London, where bought by the present owner, 1980
Literature:
John Hayes, Rowlandson Watercolours and Drawings, 1972, p.16; Richard Green and Frank T. Sabin, Thomas Rowlandson, 1980, p.20, no.37, ill.
Exhibited:
London, Richard Green and Frank T. Sabin, Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)Exhibition of Watercolours and Prints, 7th November to 6th December 1980, no.37 SOLD
7
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Changing Horses at a Post House in France
Pen and grey ink and watercolour
13.6 by 20.5 cm., 5 ¼ by 8 in.
Provenance:
With Richard Green, London , 1980, where bought by the present owner
Exhibited:
London, Richard Green and Frank T Sabin Galleries, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, Exhibition of Watercolours and Prints, 7th November – 6th December 1980, no.33
Literature:
London, Richard Green and Frank T Sabin Galleries, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, Exhibition of Watercolours and Prints, 1980, no.33, ill.
Rowlandson made several trips to the Continent when the Napoleonic Wars allowed and like his predecessor William Hogarth he enjoyed poking fun at the French. Another version of this watercolour is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
£3,500
8
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Single or Unmarried
Pen and grey ink heightened with watercolour over touches of pencil on laid paper 19 by 12.6 cm., 7 ½ by 5 in.
Provenance:
With Spink & Son, London, 1978 where bought by the present owner
Exhibited:
London, Spink & Son, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, An exhibition of drawings and watercolours in conjunction with Morton Morris & Company, 7-23 March 1983, no.23, ill.
Literature:
Spink & Son, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, An exhibition of drawings and watercolours in conjunction with Morton Morris & Company, 7-23 March 1983, no.23, ill.
This relates to a print entitled ‘Single’ or ‘Unmarried’ and published as a pair with ‘Married’ in 1786 and again in 1791. ‘Married’ shows a woman with a baby on her lap.
£4,500
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Figures on a Country Lane by a Village
Bears signature lower right
Pen and brown and grey ink and watercolour over touches of pencil
27.9 by 38.2cm., 10 ¾ by 15 in.
Provenance:
With Leger Galleries, London, where bought by the present owner, March 1981
Exhibited:
London, The Leger Galleries, An Exhibition of Watercolour Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson, 2nd – 27th February 1981, no.22
Literature:
The Leger Galleries, An Exhibition of Watercolour Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 1981, no.22, ill.
This may be a Cornish view. The row of cottages is similar to a drawing by Rowlandson in the Yale Center for British Art titled ‘View of the Church and Village of St Kew or St Cue, Cornwall’ (see Matthew Payne and James Payne, Regarding Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 2010, p.2.49, ill. fig.104). Rowlandson regularly visited Hengar in Cornwall where his patron and friend Mathew Michell had a house.
£7,000
10
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
The Boating Party
Signed and dated lower right: Rowlandson 1823
Pen and grey ink and watercolour over touches of pencil
14.8 by 24cm., 5 ¾ by 9 ½ in.
Provenance:
With Richard Green and Frank Sabin Galleries, where bought by the present owner
This subject was published in reverse as plate 35 in ‘World in Miniature’ by R. Ackermann in 1817.
Another version of this watercolour, recorded in the Nettlefold collection, is entitled: ‘Pope’s Villa, Twickenham: The Outing’ (see C. Reginald Grundy, A Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings in the collection of Frederick John Nettlefold’, 1937, vol. III).
£6,500
July 1980, lot 144
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
The Doctor
Pen and grey ink and watercolour with touches of pencil
10 by 14 cm., 4 by 5 ½ in.
Provenance: Lady Lucas; Iolo A. Williams; By descent until Sotheby’s London, 24th
£4,000
Literature:
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Rooks waiting for Pigeons
Pen and grey ink and watercolour
15.8 by 24 cm., 6 ¼ by 9 ½ in.
Provenance:
Given to the present owner, 1995
Exhibited:
London, Frank T. Sabin Gallery, A Catalogue of Watercolour Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 1933, no.29
V.P. Sabin, A Catalogue of Watercolour Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), 1933, pp. 28, 29, ill.
Rowlandson drew several versions of this subject which was clearly a favourite. One was with Guy Peppiatt Fine Art in 2022 (see Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, British Drawings and Watercolours, summer exhibition catalogue, 2022, no.12) and now in a private collection. The ‘Rooks’ are the card sharps waiting for the gullible ‘Pigeons’ to take them on.
Another version of this subject entitled ‘Gaming at Brooks Club’ is in the Museum of London (see John Hayes, A Catalogue of the Watercolours and Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson in the London Museum, 1960, no.9).
£5,500
13
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Study for ‘Procession of the Cod Company from St Giles’s to Billingsgate’
Signed lower right: Rowlandson
Pen and ink over touches of pencil 20.3 by 17.1 cm., 8 by 6 ¾ in.
Provenance: With Sabin Galleries, London
The left hand figure appears in the print of this title published on 18th September 1810.
£4,500
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Study for ‘Bad News Upon Change’
Pencil on laid paper
21 by 35.2 cm., 8 ¼ by 13 ¾ in.
The Royal Exchange, on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Cornhill in the City of London, was a popular meeting place for merchants to do business. In the centre of the courtyard was a statue of Charles II, the base of which is visible here. The surrounding buildings were destroyed by fire in 1838.
The engraving ‘Bad News Upon Change’, based on a drawing by George Moutard Woodward, was published by S.W. Fores on 28th December 1794.
£2,800
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Chairborne Affection
Pen and ink and watercolour over touches of pencil 11.1 by 16.9 cm., 4 ¼ by 6 ½ in.
Provenance: Luigi Mayer; George Mayer; Mrs Iris Harris; With Richard Green Gallery, London, where bought by the present owner
Exhibited:
London, Richard Green and Frank T Sabin Galleries, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, Exhibition of Watercolours and Prints, 7th November – 6th December 1980, no.40
Literature:
London, Richard Green and Frank T Sabin Galleries, Thomas Rowlandson 1756-1827, Exhibition of Watercolours and Prints, 1980, no.40, ill.
The figure of a large man in a wheelchair appears in Rowlandson series of engravings ‘The Comforts of Bath’ published in 1798.
£3,500
16
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Quarter Day
Inscribed lower centre: QUARTER DAY
Pen and ink and watercolour 13.2 by 9.5 cm., 5 ¼ by 3 ¾ in.
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Christie’s, 25th November 1986, lot 77, where bought by the present owner
Quarter days were the four days of the year when rent was due so families were often evicted by their landlord or left their accommodation in a hurry to avoid paying rent due. It was also the days when school terms started and servants were hired. The quarter days were traditionally Lady Day (25th March –Feast of the Annunciation), Midsummer Day (24th June – Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist), Michaelmas Day (29th September – Feast of St Michael) and Christmas Day (25th December – Feast of the Nativity of Jesus).
£2,800
DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY THOMAS ROWLANDSON (1756-1827)
GUY PEPPIATT FINE ART
Riverwide House, 6 Mason’s Yard, Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BU
