The Anatomist by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827): The Play's the Thing

Abstract

Thomas Rowlandson's print, The anatomist, published by Thomas Tegg of Cheapside on 12 March 1811, is one of Rowlandson's most recognizable caricatures with a medical theme. For the modern day non-historian, Rowlandson's comic prints, particularly the more abundant social as opposed to political caricatures, are characteristically transparent and easily accessible to interpretation, no doubt contributing to the artist's continued popularity after two centuries. According to his biographer Bernard Falk, Rowlandson's humorous conceptions “may be roughly defined as chunks of visual experience distilled into broad and simple comedy”.1 Ronald Paulson has contrasted the compositions of Rowlandson with the “narrative” and “emblematic” works of William Hogarth (1697–1764), observing that the two artists, besides occupying opposite ends of the eighteenth century, “are also representatives of the change that took place in the signifying structure of graphic art between the age of the emblem and the age of romantic expression”.2 According to Paulson, Rowlandson's scene “never tells more than the simplest anecdote that is least in need of commentary”.3 Falk echoes these sentiments: “Because for the most part Rowlandson is content with the surface appearance of things, he is easy to live with, calling for no special preparation of mood, his meaning plain and instantaneously conveyed to the observer”.4