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 ROWLANDSON, Thomas (1756-1827) after WOODWARD
The Welch Sailor's Mistake or Tars in Conversation
London: Published by Thomas Tegg, 30 June, 1808. Etching with added hand colour. Image size (including text): 8 1/2 x 12 3/8 inches. Sheet size: 10 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.
A finely observed naval cartoon, from the most gifted of all the great caricaturists, Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson was one of the greatest British caricaturists of his day; he excelled as a watercolourist, draughtsman and engraver and brought a new era to English satire. Although he is commonly thought of as a biting social and political satirist, most of his drawings are gentle humorous records of urban and rustic life. His pretty watercolours are often used to illustrate Georgian society; in particular the great public gatherings associated with sport, art and entertainment, and provide an invaluable record of life during that tumultuous era. The eager young Rowlandson learnt to draw before he could write, and quickly enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools. Throughout his career he was an industrious engraver, and it was said that the amount of copper he etched would sheathe the entire British Navy. Rowlandson's powers of composition and humor combined to produce images that are both historically important and artistically impressive, and he remains one of England's best-loved caricaturists.
In this caricature a group of sailors is seated on the forecastle. A British tar, on a barrel, with a canister of 'real Oronooko' by his side, is spinning a yarn to his messmates; he has arrived at the exciting incident of his narrative:- 'and so then, do you see, David, we sprang a leak!' when his Welsh messmate, who cannot resist this allusion to a reputed national delicacy... interrupts him: 'Cot pless us - and save us - did you? and a ferry coot fetchitable [i.e.vegetable] it is; I should have liked to have had a pit with you'.
Grego Rowlandson the Caricaturist ii, pp.87-8; George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires..in the British Museum Vol. VIII, No. 11140
#6501 $485.00  
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