Samuel Alken after Thomas Rowlandson.

A French Family [&] An Italian Family

18 x 14 inches

A pair of etchings with aquatint by Samuel Alken after Thomas Rowlandson, published in London in 1786 and 1785 respectively.

There was nothing that the British loved more in Georgian England than to poke fun at their neighbours across the Channel and there was nobody who relished in it as much as the caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson. Here we have a scathing pair of satirical prints poking fun at Italian and French domestic life. In both prints the families are clearly destitute and Rowlandson revels in every detail that highlights their deprivation.

The Italian Family are clearly rehearsing for an opera in their humble accommodation with, we might assume, a countertenor accompanied by violin, cello and harpsichord. All are in ragged clothes and even the female vocal accompaniment is juggling between her chords and a drooling infant upon her lap. Meanwhile, the French Family are practising their dance moves in equally humble surroundings. Admittedly, the frocks appear to be a little less ragged but a bed has had to be upturned to accommodate the proceedings. Dogs dance to a small boy on tambourine and bugle, thus lampooning the affectations of their owners. The mistress dominates the scene, hair elegantly coiffured, gracefully pirouetting and dreaming of being born to better things.

£1500 Pair