Love

About this artwork

Step into the playful world of Thomas Rowlandson *Love*, a hand-colored from August 12, 1785. This intimate 7 1/16 × 8 7/8 in. print captures a moment between couples—men and women entwined in amorous embrace—reflecting the cheeky spirit of late 18th-century British satire Rowlandson, a master caricaturist often collaborating with publishers like T., delighted audiences with his witty observations of human folly and desire. Rowlandson's style belongs to the vibrant tradition of Georgian caricature, where exaggerated forms and humorous vignettes poked fun at social norms, romance, and vice. The hand-coloring technique, applied by skilled artisans after printing, brings vivid life to the etching's lines, enhancing its appeal as affordable entertainment for London's middle class. These prints were avidly collected, circulating in taverns and homes. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department as part of The Elisha Whittelsey Collection (acquired via The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959), *Love* exemplifies how Rowlandson's bawdy humor illuminated the era's cultural tensions around courtship and passion, inviting us to chuckle at timeless human antics.