A penny barber, Thomas Rowlandson
Summary
A stout old gentleman, enveloped in a barber's cloth, has taken his seat in the shaving-chair ; his wig is removed and his chin plenteously lathered ; the aproned barber is still employed with his soap and basin. One customer is performing an ablution ; and the assistant, whose hair is dressed in the wildest French style, is smoothing down a compact full-bottomed old-fashioned wig. One or two barber's blocks, a cracked glass, and a bird in a cage form the chief embellishments, to which must be added a lantern lighted by a single candle and inscribed with this information, 'The oldest shaving shop in London. Most money for second-hand wigs!'
Courtesy of Boston Public Library
Thomas Rowlandson - English caricaturist of the 18th and early 19th centuries Britain, known for his humor, caricatures, satirical drawings, and watercolors, a popular artist in the Regency period in England.
Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) was an English artist and caricaturist of the Georgian Era, noted for his political satire and social observation. A prolific artist and printmaker, Rowlandson produced both individual social and political satires, as well as large number of illustrations for novels, humorous books, and topographical works. Like other caricaturists of his age such as James Gillray, his caricatures are often robust or bawdy. Rowlandson also produced highly explicit erotica for a private clientele; this was never published publicly at the time and is now only found in a small number of collections. His caricatures included those of people in power such as the Duchess of Devonshire, William Pitt the Younger and Napoleon Bonaparte.
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