University

May 10, 1802

Not on view

In this fourth print of a group of eight, a university tutor quizzes a student on Euclid—finding the latter unprepared after a night of partying. The student holds his head and sips a tonic as a young woman peeps out from a cupboard and male friends look around a bedroom door. Prints on the wall that depict a nude and horserace point to the student's true interests, while a caricature of his tutor demonstrates his lack of respect for authority. 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

Title: University
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 1/16 × 13 1/16 in. (25.6 × 33.2 cm)
Plate: 8 3/4 × 10 13/16 in. (22.3 × 27.5 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Object Number: 59.533.851(6)
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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A Fair – A Group of Gypsies – Men and Women in Rustic Clothes in Front of Two Makeshift Tents, Thomas Rowlandson British, Etching — A Fair – A Group of Gypsies – Men and Women in Rustic Clothes in Front of Two Makeshift Tents
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Stroh Violin, George Evans & Co. English, Mahogany and aluminum, British — Stroh Violin
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first quarter 20th century

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