Six Stages of Marring a Face

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827)

Price

£3,500

Medium

Ink and watercolour

Dimensions

10 x 13 inches

Provenance

The Lawrence Alkin Collection

Illustrated

Study for a print published by S. W. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly, 29 May 1792

The present image is a preparatory study for a print published by the printseller Samuel William Fores in 1792. In the plate of the print (a copy is held in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Thomas Rowlandson dedicates the work to the subject, ‘his grace the Duke of Hamilton’. Douglas Hamilton was the 8th Duke of Hamilton, who inherited his title as a teenager. According to the academic Andrew Steptoe, the Duke was ‘one of the handsomest men of his day … [but] gradually gave way to dissipation. He was fond of boxing and low company’.

Ref:
Andrew Steptoe "John Moore, 18th century physician, bearleader and social observor" Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. vol. 98, no. 2, February 2005, pp. 70-74

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