An Antiquarian
Etcher Frederick George Byron British
After Thomas Rowlandson British
Publisher William Holland British
Not on view
A shortsighted antiquarian approaches an Egyptian mummy and is startled to find it wearing spectacles and grinning at him with amusement. Rowlandson delighted in mocking the foibles of his countrymen. In this case his target was the taste for antiquities that flourished in England during the eighteenth century and led to the formation of gentlemanly societies and institutions such as the British Museum. Rowlandson etched this vigorous design himself, but the color washes would have been added in the shop of his publisher, William Holland.
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