Social Political & Satirical

19x12 cm

SYNTAX PREACHING
Drawn & Etched by Rowlandson
London, Pub. Apr. 1. 1813 at R. Ackerman's Repository of Arts, 101, Strand. 

Etching by Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827), painter, etcher and caricaturist. Born on 13th July 1757 in Old Jewry, London, the son of a wool and silk merchant who was bankrupt in 1759, his children then being cared for by his brother James, a Spitalfields silk weaver, and his wife Jane Chevalier. He studied at Dr. Barwis's academy in Soho Square, at the Royal Academy and Paris. Working initially as a portrait artist in London he concentrated on caricature from about 1787. He died on 22nd April 1827, leaving his estate to his long term companion, Betsy Winter.

The Tours of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque written by William Combe and illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson were first published in in 1812 and were very popular with many further editions published until about 1855 and two further tours, Dr Syntax in Search of Consolation and Doctor Syntax in Search of a Wife published from 1820 and 1821.
The early editions were stronger impressions with finer hand colouring, this example from the 1813 edition is a very good example. Included with the print is the engraved and hand painted title page, advrtisment and 12 pages of  text relating to the etching.