Doctor Syntax Losing His Way
Thomas Rowlandson British
Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British
Related author William Combe British
Not on view
In this second plate of the series we see the short-sighted Dr. Syntax examining a signpost in hilly countryside populated only by donkeys, clearly unprepared for his solo journey and unable to appreciate the view. 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.
