The Reverend Doctor Syntax
Thomas Rowlandson British
Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British
Related author William Combe British
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Rowlandson conceived the character Doctor Syntax 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. In this frontispiece from an 1819 reissue Syntax sits in his study, inspired by his reading to make a tour.
