Viewing at the Royal Academy - YCBA Collections Search

Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827, British, Viewing at the Royal Academy, ca. 1815

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Creator:: Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827
Title:: Viewing at the Royal Academy
Date:: ca. 1815
Materials & Techniques:: Watercolor with pen and gray and brown ink over graphite on moderately thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:: Sheet: 5 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches (14.6 x 24.1 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B2001.2.1161
Classification:: Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:: Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:: art | dresses | frames (furnishings) | genre subject | hats | interior | men | people | suits (men's costume) | view | women
Associated Places:: City of London | England | Europe | London | Royal Academy | United Kingdom
Access:: Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:46535
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

From 1769 the Royal Academy in London mounted annual public exhibitions of contemporary art. Rowlandson himself was a regular exhibitor until 1787. Here he satirizes the popular idea that looking at art was a civilizing experience. Among the cast of comic characters, a central figure carries a connoisseur’s eyeglasses, but his large stomach betrays a gluttonous appetite. Similarly, the pair on the right bend in the most undignified of postures to get closer to the paintings, in the man’s case to get a more intimate view of a voluptuous female nude.

Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)

The Great Spectacle: 250 Years of the Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy of Arts, 2018-06-11 - 2018-08-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Seeing Double : Portraits, Copies and Exhibitions in 1820s London (Yale Center for British Art, 2010-06-24 - 2010-09-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

James Gillray and the Art of Caricature (Tate Britain, 2001-07-07 - 2001-09-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Royal Academy of Arts, 1978-03-04 - 1978-05-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-11-16 - 1978-01-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Richard T. Godfrey, James Gillray, The art of caricature , Tate Publishing, London, 2001, p. 89, no. 52, NJ18 G3845 G63 2001 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Mark Hallett, The Great Spectacle: 250 years of the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, [London], 2018, p. 24, no. 5, N5054 .H35 2018 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christine Riding, Turner & the sea, Thames & Hudson, London, 2013, p. 164, fig. 34, NJ18.T85 R52 2013 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Riely, Rowlandson drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, p. 13, no. 10, NJ18 .R79 R68 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Royal Academy of Arts, The Girtin collection : watercolours by Thomas Girtin and other masters : Royal Academy of Arts Diploma Gallery, London, 1962, p. 18, no. 102, ND1928 .G57 1962 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 64-65, no. 27, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

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