The Enraged Son of Mars and Timid Tonsor
Social satire, Medicine in art
In The Enraged Son of Mars and Timid Tonsor, Rowlandson criticizes barber-surgeons who can barely offer a safe shave or haircut but claim to have enough skills to treat the sick and injured. The angry customer, a military officer who has removed his sword and hat, reacts angrily to having his face cut while being shaved. On a shelf above the sword and hat is a row of wigs labled for clients of different professions: 'Clarkes Block', 'Parsons Block', 'Docter's Block', 'Lawyers Block.' On the rear wall a small illustration depicts King David’s handsome but arrogant son Absolom, who was killed in battle when caught in a tree by his long hair. The monkey sitting on the table lathering his own head demonstrates that he can easily do the same job as any barber.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1811
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://art.famsf.org/thomas-rowlandson/enraged-son-mars-1963302264">Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 248 x 345 mm
Still image
A Going! A Going!
Social satire, Medicine in art
In A Going! A Going!, a physician, himself rosy-cheeked, well-fed, and hence well-paid, visits an sickly patient too ill to leave his bedroom. A list of prescriptions on the table and a collection of medications on the window sill indicate that an ineffective treatment has been going on for a long time. Revealing a ridiculous lack of empathy, the physician exclaims, “Dear Sir, you look this morning the picture of health. I have nay doubt at my next visit I shall find you intirely cured of all your earthly infirmitys.” The print suggests that it is in the doctor’s best interest for his patient to remain sick as long as possible. Until the patient dies, he is worth more sick than healthy.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1813
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/detail/NLMNLM~1~1~101393308~148707:A-Going!-A-Going!!!-R--Newton-del--">U.S. National Library of Medicine</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 270 x 390 mm
Still image
A Visit to the Doctor
Social satire, Medicine in art
A Visit to the Doctor describes an appointment with a physician who could have belonged to Hogarth’s Company of Undertakers. He lives the lifestyle of a nobleman and receives patients in a well-appointed study attended by a footman. The bust of Galen on the mantel and the elegant bookcase suggest he is overly-learned and out of touch with reality. The patients are simple folks who have been led to believe they should seek his advice. Although he should send these healthy people away, the doctor sees an opportunity for a fee: “You eat well—you drink well and you sleep well—very good— You was perfectly right in coming to me, for depend upon it I will give you something that shall do away all these things.”
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1809
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3018332&partId=1&searchText=A+visit+to+the+doctor&people=109191&page=1">The British Museum</a>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 234 x 329 mm
Still image
Bath Races
Social satire, Medicine in art
During the 18th century the city of Bath became a fashionable tourist attraction by reputation of its spas. Fed by geothermal mineral springs, the hot sulfuric water at Bath was alleged to heal a variety of illnesses and infirmities. “Taking the waters” was especially recommended by doctors for the treatment of gout, a disease associated with an immoderate diet of rich food and wine. In Bath Races, Rowlandson caricatures a group of people crippled by gout and other ailments, hysterically heading for the baths near the River Avon to seek a magic cure rather than admitting to the excesses of their own lifestyles. The buildings at the top of the hill are part of the Royal Crescent residences designed by John Wood in the 18th century, where today the luxury Royal Crescent Hotel is still in business.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1810
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<a href="http://art.famsf.org/thomas-rowlandson/bath-races-1963302193">Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco</a>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 240 X 350 mm
Still image
Comedy in the Country, Tragedy in London
Social satire, Medicine in art
In contrast to the opposite work about audience, this print illustrates attendance at non-patent or “illegitimate” theatres, one in London and one in the countryside. Non-patented theatres in England were theoretically illegal, so they usually included programs of music to disguise their productions as concerts instead of plays. The boisterous crowd from the country enjoys a raucous musical performance in a rustic space. The city crowd appears more urbane, but a barrier of spikes has been installed to protect the musicians and actors from the emotional and unpredictable crowd. A woman near the center wears a tri-color bonnet, perhaps a symbol of the 1791 Chapelier Law, which encouraged free-market theatre in France.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1807
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1655081&partId=1&searchText=Comedy+in+the+Country,+Tragedy+in+London&people=109191&page=1">The British Museum</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 347 x 246 mm
Still image
Comedy Spectators, Tragedy Spectators
Social satire, Medicine in art
In this print and the one opposite, Rowlandson illustrates two different types of playhouses and their audiences in English theatre during his time. This print portrays the attendance of two different productions at the same “patent” or “legitimate” theatre, licensed by the state, where mostly classic works of approved taste were performed. Note the program with the title of Romeo and Juliet (printed backwards) on which the genteel woman in the lower image rests her hand holding a fan. While she uses the other hand to daintily wipe away a tear, another woman receives smelling salts to revive her from a faint. Even the group in the upper image, although heartily amused, is well-dressed and well-behaved.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
S. W. Fores, London
1789
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1595706&partId=1&searchText=Comedy+Spectators,+Tragedy+Spectators+&people=109191&page=1">The British Museum</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 372 x 265 mm
Still image
Death in the Dissecting Room
Social satire, Medicine in art
Rowlandson’s depiction of a working anatomy laboratory reflects the popular view of physicians as ghoulish and disrespectful of death. The doctor and his busy staff are conducting at least two dissections, one in the foreground and one in the background, while more bodies await preparation. One female body is callously left lying on the floor, and another still in a bag arrives through the door. The delivery man looks anxiously behind him, suggesting that the new body has been stolen or that the laboratory is operating outside of the law. Skeletons and specimen jars fill the room, and entrails and instruments (including the satirically ubiquitous clyster syringe) clutter the floor. A human skeleton representing Death ambushes the doctor with an arrow, suggesting that the body next in line for the dissection table will be his.
Thomas Rowlandson (1757 – 1827)
<p>Unpublished drawing for the William Combe, <em>English Dance of Death</em>, London: Ackerman (1814-1816)</p>
1815-1816
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a>
<p><a href="http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/945428fb-6fd4-80f5-e040-e00a180653c3">New York Public Library Digital Gallery </a></p>
Watercolor drawing; original dimensions, 255 x 34 mm
Still image
Doctor Drainbarrel
Social satire, Medicine in art
Doctor Drainbarrel, “conveyed home in order to take his trial for neglect of family duty,” depicts an inebriated doctor unwillfully collected from a country ale house. Pushed in a wheel barrel by a servant with a roving eye, he is followed by his angry wife who doesn’t know her dress has revealed her attributes. The situation forewarns that she has other opportunities if her husband neglects her. A rooster with a flock of chickens imitates the wife’s gesture, as if to say that he knows how to be a better husband than the doctor does. A church included in the background landscape suggests that the doctor should be attending church instead of idling away his time at the pub.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1810
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3022894&partId=1&searchText=drainbarrel&people=109191&page=1">The British Museum</a></p>
Hand-colored etchin; original dimensions, 240 x 341 mm
Still image
Dropsy Courting Consumption
Social satire, Medicine in art
During the 18th and 19th centuries certain illnesses became markers of affluence and refinement. Consumption (tuberculosis), was associated with delicate femininity or Romantic sensibility. This print portrays a courting couple, destined for the mausoleum rather than the altar. The anorexic woman represents fashion-foolishness with her flamboyant accessories, including a dainty but impractical fan and extravagant hat. By contrast her suitor is rotund and swollen from dropsy (kidney disease), which like gout was associated with gluttony and intemperance. In the background a second couple with reverse dispositions strolls leisurely through the park beneath a statue of Hercules, paragon of physical strength, who earned his way into heaven through hard work.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1810
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://art.famsf.org/thomas-rowlandson/dropsy-courting-consumption-1963302255">Fine Arts Museums of San Francsico</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 336 x 239 mm
Still image
Giving Up the Ghost or One Too Many
Social satire, Medicine in art
As in Hogarth’s Reward of Cruelty, the physician in Giving up the Ghost or One Too Many is associated with corpses, skeletons, and death. While the sleeping doctor is oblivious to everything, his patient succumbs in spite of discarded medications strewn under the bed. An apothecary bottle in his pocket points to the physician’s ineffectual treatments. Death has appeared at the window, holding a violent javelin and an hourglass indicating that the patient’s time is up. A representative from the undertaker has also arrived, bearing a mourning mute’s wand and a coffin on his back. The paper at the physican’s feet presents his indifference to the patient’s fate: “I purge I bleed I sweat em / Then if they Die I Lets em.”
Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Thomas Tegg, London
1809
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
<p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons - BY-NC-ND</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3024440&partId=1&searchText=giving+up+the+ghost&people=109191&page=1">The British Museum</a></p>
Hand-colored etching; original dimensions, 246 x 355 mm
Still image