Watercolor, pen and black ink, gray ink, and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 11 5/16 x 17 1/2 inches (28.7 x 44.5 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2001.2.1134
Gallery Label:
Thomas Rowlandson was a regular visitor to France, and this watercolor of a postal coach departing from a country inn was no doubt inspired by one of his journeys. Despite his fascination with the French, Rowlandson appealed to the English taste for mocking their neighbors across the channel. In this drawing he plays on the stereotype of the French as miserably malnourished. The sign on the right promises good food supplied by “J. Maigre.” “Maigre” is French for “thin” and “soup maigre” was the notorious soup without meat. The two figures to the left who watch the coach rumble out of the yard do so with wry amusement. One of them, an artist, is surely Rowlandson himself; the other well-fed Englishman is probably his friend and traveling companion Henry Wigstead. 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)