Session House, Clerkenwell, from "Ackermann's Repository"
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Hamill and Barker
Accession Number
1961-105-280
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), a renowned British caricaturist and illustrator, the architectural elegance of London's Session House in Clerkenwell in this 1809 print fromAckermann's Repository of Arts*. Published during the Regency era, the image reflects the bustling urban life of early 19th-century England showcasing a key Middlesex courthouse where legal sessions were held. Rowlandson's satirical flair, often seen in his humorous social commentaries, here gives way to a more documentary style, highlighting the neoclassical facade amid the city's evolving streetscape. As a hand-colored aqu...