Doctor Syntax Setting Out on His Tour to the Lakes
Thomas Rowlandson British
Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British
Related author William Combe British
Not on view
In this first plate of the series Dr. Syntax prepares to mount his horse, ignoring the scolding words of his annoyed wife and attracting the attention of passing villagers. A parish church in the background reminds us of duties he has set aside to pursuit of an aesthetic ideal. Rowlandson conceived the character to mock the vogue for the Picturesque, an aesthetic concept popular in late eighteenth-century Britain. The movement grew from essays by William Gilpin that praised irregular natural forms, influenced garden design and encouraged tourists to visit medieval ruins. Rowlandson's series of twenty-nine aquatints detail the adventures of a country curate who travels to the Lake District to sketch landscapes embodying the popular ideal, a journey punctuated by mishaps. The prints first appeared in Rudolph’s Ackermann’s “Poetical Magazine” in 1809-11, supported by William Combe's poetry, and the following year were republished as a book. This is an 1819 reissue.
