Exhibition Room, Somerset House
Medium
Etching and aquatint; proof before letters
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 15/16 × 14 5/16 in. (27.8 × 36.4 cm) Plate: 9 3/8 in. × 11 7/16 in. (23.8 × 29 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.600.467
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant Exhibition Room at Somerset House, as captured in this lively 1808 print by a stellar collaboration: architects and illustrators Auguste Charles Pugin and Thomas Rowland, publisher Rudolph Ackermann of London, and engraver Hill. Dated April 1, this and aquatint depicts the grand space of the Royal Academy of Arts, then housed at Somerset House along the Thames. Annual exhibitions here were Regency London's social highlights, drawing fashionable crowds to marvel at contemporary paintings amid ornate architecture and chandelier light. The proof before letters—an early, pri...