Thomas Rowlandson

1 portrait matching 'Thomas Rowlandson'

Thomas Rowlandson, by George Henry Harlow, 1814 -NPG 2813 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Thomas Rowlandson

by George Henry Harlow
1814
9 1/4 in. x 7 3/4 in. (235 mm x 197 mm)
NPG 2813

Inscriptionback to top

Signed lower right with initials: G.H.H. and inscribed in pencil in Rowlandson's hand: Tho Rowlandson/Aged 58, 1814.

This portraitback to top

Rowlandson's signature and categorical statement of his age confirms the date of his birth, given as July 1756 in the obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, June 1827, though doubt has been cast on the accuracy of this by the publication of the Students' Register of the Royal Academy Schools where he is listed in November 1772 as being '15 on 24 July last' (Sidney Hutchison in Walpole Society Journal, XXXVIII, 1962, p 138). However the entries for this page may have been filled in later en bloc so Rowlandson's own statement on the NPG drawing is especially valuable.

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length seated holding a drawing of a Dr Syntax-type traveller.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs James 1865; M. H. Spielman and bought from him 1936.

Exhibitionsback to top

SKM 1865 (1804) lent by Mrs James.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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