Sports of a Country Fair, Part the Second
October 5, 1810
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/16 × 13 1/16 in. (23 × 33.2 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
59.533.1937
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Rowlandson's *Sports of a Country Fair, Part the Second* (1810), published by Thomas Tegg, captures the boisterous energy of rural English entertainments during the Regency era. This hand-colored etching depicts chaotic fairground scenes filled with men and women reveling in traditional "sports" like wrestling, cudgel-playing, and perhaps more ribald pursuits, all rendered with Rowlandson's signature exaggerated caricatures. As a leading satirist of his time, Rowlandson poked fun at the lower classes' rowdy leisure, highlighting the mix of joy, excess, and folly in these communal gather...
About the Artist
Thomas Rowlandson|Thomas Tegg · 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...