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School for Gallantry

Etcher Thomas Rowlandson British
Publisher Thomas Rowlandson British
May 10, 1802
Not on view
In this fifth print of a group of eight, a blue-uniformed suitor discovers his lady-love sleeping in the arms of a red-coated rival. Scattered instruments and a monkey wearing the dozing officer's hat and holding his whip, indicate that frenzied dancing has taken place, while Rousseau's "Eloise" ("Julie, or the New Heloise") lying open on the floor points to illicit passion. Rowlandson etched this set after drawings by Willyams, a university-educated lieutenant-colonel from Cornwall who also supplied supporting satirical text under the pseudonym Joel McCringer. Rowlandson's characteristic elegance does not disguise the dark human impulses being satirized. Modern education, it is suggested, does little to teach self-control, wisdom or empathy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: School for Gallantry
  • Series/Portfolio: A Compendious Treatise on Modern Education: Title and 8 plates
  • Etcher: Thomas Rowlandson (British, London 1757–1827 London)
  • Artist: After James Brydges Willyams (British, Cornwall 1772–1820 Truro, Cornwall)
  • Publisher: Thomas Rowlandson (British, London 1757–1827 London)
  • Date: May 10, 1802
  • Medium: Hand-colored etching
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 10 1/8 × 13 1/16 in. (25.7 × 33.1 cm)
    Plate: 9 13/16 × 10 7/8 in. (24.9 × 27.6 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
  • Object Number: 59.533.851(4)
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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