A Pilgrimage from Surry to Gloucester Place or the Bishop is an Extacty
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 5/8 × 13 7/16 in. (24.5 × 34.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.533.1307
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the lively world of Regency-era satire, Thomas Rowlandson's hand-colored etching *A Pilgrimage from Sur to Gloucester Place or the is an Extacty* (1809), published by Thomasegg, captures the scandalous underbelly of British high society. Created amid the Mary Anne Clarke affair—which rocked the nation when the Duke of York and Albany's former mistress was accused of influence-peddling in military commissions—this print skewers the era's moral hypocrisies with Rowlandson's signature wit. The title playfully nods to a supposed "pilgrimage" from Surrey to Clarke's London residence at Glouceste...