A Tour to the Lakes
October 1807
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 14 1/8 × 10 1/16 in. (35.8 × 25.5 cm) Plate: 13 5/8 × 9 3/4 in. (34.6 × 24.7 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
59.533.1010
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Rowlandson’s *A Tour to the Lakes*, dated October 1807, captures the spirit of early nineteenth-century British tourism with his signature wit. Rowlandson, a leading caricaturist of the Georgian era, frequently lampooned the social habits of his day. Here he turns his attention to the fashionable “picturesque tour” of England’s Lake District, a journey that had become a rite of passage for the rising middle and upper classes inspired by Romantic ideas of landscape and nature. Executed as a hand-colored etching, the print combines Rowlandson’s fluid line work with delicate watercolor wa...
About the Artist
Thomas Rowlandson · 1756–1827
Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) was an English artist and caricaturist whose satirical watercolors and prints captured the social life of Georgian Britain with unparalleled wit and technical mastery. Alongside James Gillray, he is recognized as one of the greatest British graphic artists, and his distinctive flowing line and keen observations have made his work integral to understanding late 18th an...