Thomas Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson belongs in London’s history of British graphic art, satire, and late Georgian everyday life. He was born here in 1757. At fifteen, he entered the Royal Academy Schools after attending Dr. Barwis’s school on Soho Square. Drawing and etching soon mattered more to him than oil painting. His London career ranged from political caricatures featuring William Pitt, Charles James Fox, and the Prince of Wales to gentle watercolours and picturesque landscapes. James Gillray was his close friend, while Rudolph Ackermann employed him from 1798. Wealthy patrons also collected his drawings and watercolours.

“Transplanting of Teeth” offers the sharpest glimpse of his humour and social criticism. The 1787 hand-coloured etching and aquatint moves from right to left. A chimney sweep faces extraction beside a wealthy woman awaiting a replacement tooth. On the right, a dentist treats a young woman while a uniformed man examines his mouth. A ragged boy and girl leave on the left, with the girl clutching a coin. Doctor Syntax later carried his comic storytelling through a series of prints. He worked until the final two years of his life and was buried at St Paul’s, Covent Garden, in 1827.