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Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827, British, Vauxhall Gardens, ca. 1784

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Creator:

Thomas Rowlandson, 1756–1827

Title:

Vauxhall Gardens

Former Title(s):

Old Vauxhall Gardens

Additional Title(s):

Old Vauxhall Gardens (Vauxhall Gardens)

Date:

ca. 1784

Medium:

Watercolor, pen and black ink, pen and gray ink, and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper

Dimensions:

Mount: 15 1/16 x 20 11/16 inches (38.3 x 52.5 cm), Sheet: 13 3/16 x 18 3/4 inches (33.5 x 47.6 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in black ink, on mount, lower left: "Thomas Rowlandson. (underlined) - Old Vauxhall Gardens (underlined) - The earliest version of the subject. | Mrs. Weischel, mother of Mrs. Billington, singing in the orchestra. Portraits of the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Robinson and her husband, | Duchess of Devonshire, Lady Duncannon, Captain Topham, Admiral Paisley, James Perry, Parson Bate Dudley, Mrs. Hartley and others. | In a supper-box, Dr. Johnson, Boswell, Mrs. Thrale, and Oliver Goldsmith. ----"; in black ink, on mount, lower right: "Ce dessin provient de la collection de Sir William Aug. Fraser, Bart M.A. | I la figure en 1899 a I'exposition des oeuvres des 'English humourists in Art' | No. 32 du catalogue. - Cette exposition eut lieu dans les galeries du | 'Royal Institue of Painters in Water-colours.'---"

Collector’s mark: Louis Deglatigny (Lug 1768a)

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1975.4.1844

Classification:

Drawings & Watercolors

Collection:

Prints and Drawings

Subject Terms:

Associated Places:

Access:

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Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5669

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Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens had been a fashionable resort since the times of Charles II. In 1732 the gardens reopened to the public after extensive renovations under the proprietership of Jonathan tyers. The entrepreneurial tyers has the gardens embellished with walks, ruins, statues, Chinese pavilions, triumphal arches, and a "Gothik" orchestra, and his continuing program of improvements included several important art commissions, most notably Luis-François Roubiliac's celebrated statue of Handel, four patriotic modern history subjects by Francis Hayman, and an extensive sequence of decorative paintings designed for the supper-boxes by Hayman, and an extensive sequence of decorative paintings designed for the supper-boxes by Hayman and William Hogarth.
Vauxhall was almost universally popular, despite (or because of it) its reputation for frivolity and moral laxity, and typified the egalitarian nature of British social life of the period. James Boswell, and inveterate commentator on metropolitan life observed:
Vauxhall Gardens is peculiarly
adapted to the taste of the English
nation; there being a mixture of
curious show - gay exhibition,
musick, vocal and instrumental, not
too refined for the general ear; - for
all which only shilling paid.
And, though last, not least, good eat-
ing and drinking for those who wish
to purchase the regale.
Rowlandson frequently visited Vauxhall, finding there, as his friend Henry Angelo noted, "plenty of employment for his pencil." The subject of his watercolor is the orchestra outside the Rotunda during and evening concert. The concert was one of the few professional ensembles of the period, renowned for the high quality of its playing. Many of the figures can be tentatively identified, including the Prince Regent whispering to the actress "Perdita Robinson, his former lover, shown arm-in-arm with her husband, and, in the foreground, the playwright and dandy Edward Topham peering through his monocle or "quizzing glass" at Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, and her sister Harriet (see cat. 7).

Gillian Forrester

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 106 cat. no. 87

Thomas Rowlandson - Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England (Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 2011-04-08 - 2011-06-12) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Thomas Rowlandson - Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England (Block Museum of Art, 2011-01-14 - 2011-03-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Art and Music in Britain: Four Encounters, 1730-1900 (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-10-05 - 2006-12-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Thomas Rowlandson from the Paul Mellon Collection (National Sporting Library and Museum, 2005-04-14 - 2005-06-10) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Pleasures and Pastimes (Yale Center for British Art, 1990-02-21 - 1990-04-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Royal Academy of Arts, 1978-03-04 - 1978-05-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Rowlandson Drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-11-16 - 1978-01-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Pursuit of Happiness - A View of Life in Georgian England (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-09-18) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain : four encounters, 1730-1900, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2006, pp. 6-7, 12, 3, V 1699 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Timothy J. Barringer, Art & music in Britain, four encounters, 1730-1900 (exhibition and label text) , New Haven, 2006, [p. 37], V 1699:1 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, English drawings and watercolors, 1550-1850, in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon , The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1972, p. 53, no. 71, NC228 B37+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Baskett, The drawings of Thomas Rowlandson in the Paul Mellon Collection, Brandywine Press, New York, 1978, pp. 13-14, no. 12, NJ18 .R79 B38 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

British Art at Yale, Apollo, v.105, April 1977, pp. 280-1, fig. 8, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's sale catalogue : The collection of ancient and modern pictures and drawings of Sir William Augustus Fraser, Bart. : 3 December 1900, Christie's, December 3, 1900, p. 6, lot 47, Fiche B51 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jonathan Conlin, The pleasure garden , from Vauxhall to Coney Island, , University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2013, p. 113, fig. 4.4, SB451.36.G7 P54 2013 (YCBA) Also available online (ORBIS) [Project Muse] [YCBA]

Teri J Edelstein, Vauxhall Gardens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1983, pp. 46, 50, no. 92, pl. 4, SB446 .G72 L64 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elisabeth Fairman, Pleasures and pastimes, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990, p. 30, no. 213, DA485 F25 1990 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Bernard Falk, Thomas Rowlandson : His life and art, New York, 1952, pp. 64-5, 78, NJ18 .R79 F35 1952 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Martin Hardie, Water-colour painting in Britain, B.T. Batsford, London, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 211-12, ND1928 .H37 1967 (LC)+ Oversize YCBA [ORBIS]

John T. Hayes, The art of Thomas Rowlandson, Art Services International, Alexandria, Va., 1990, pp. 66-9, no. 20, NJ18 .R79 H375 1990 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Patricia Phagan, Thomas Rowlandson, pleasures and pursuits in Georgian England , Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. London, 2011, pp. 58-59, no. 1, NJ18 R79 P53 2011 + OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, The pursuit of happiness : a view of life in Georgian England : an exhibition selected from the Paul Mellon collection, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 54, 113, no. 110, N6766 Y34 1977 (YCBA) [YCBA]

John Riely, Rowlandson drawings from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, pp. 4-6, no. 4, pl. I, NJ18 .R79 R68 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Simon Schama, Rowlandson in the Round, TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, Issue no. 3963, March 10, 1978, p. 282, Film S748 (SML) Also available Online in TLS Historical Archive (ORBIS) [ORBIS]

The Cunning Eye of Thomas Rowlandson, Apollo, vol.105, no. 182, April 1977, pp. 280-1, fig. 8, N1 A54 05:2 + (YCBA) Also available: N5220 M552 A7 1977 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 106-7, no. 87, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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