Object number1953.7.1

Scene in a Country Landscape

Date1817

Artist Thomas Rowlandson (English, 1757-1827)

CultureEnglish

MediumWatercolor, vermillion ink, black ink and wash, and graphite on cream wove paper with a countermark of J WHATMAN/ _80_

DimensionsMatted: 16 x 22 in. (40.64 x 55.88 cm)
Sheet: 11 1/8 x 18 7/16 in. (28.26 x 46.83 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Fitz Randolph (Mary E. Hill, class of 1945-4)

On View

Not on view

Period18th c

Classification(s)

Drawings and Watercolors

SignedSigned and dated (LR): Rowlandson 1817

BibliographyMundy, James, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007), p. 68 repr.; Humanzing Landscapes: Geography, Culture, and the Magoon Collection, (Poughkeepsie: FLLAC, 2000), p.12 repr.

Vassar Exhibitions

Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England

Alumni Reunion Exhibition (1990)

Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, NY, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "Humanizing Landscapes: Geography, Culture and the Magoon Collection" 5 Oct. - 20 Dec. 2000. Cat. no.56, repr. p.12;
Poughkeepsie, New York, Vassar College Libraries, Special Collections [further research needed for exhibition title and specific dates - see email in file dated 6/7/07 ], 1972

Evanston, Illinois, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, "Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England," January 14 - March 13, 2011.

Poughkeepsie, New York, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, "Thomas Rowlandson: Pleasures and Pursuits in Georgian England," April 8 - June 12, 2011.
DescriptionAn important artist during the golden age of English caricature from around 1780 to 1820, Thomas Rowlandson was esteemed for his humorous water- colors, drawings, and etchings gently skewering various social types. In many of these works, idealized landscapes and cityscapes serve as foils to scenes picturing the foibles and follies of a new city populace enjoying its leisure time. These harmonious backdrops aligned Rowlandson with the current trend in Georgian England of the romantic, picturesque landscape, the countryside being of prime importance for notions of rustic simplicity and beauty. Watercolor, prized for its accessibility and spontaneity, be- came central to the movement. This watercolor, Scene in a Country Landscape, fits well into the picturesque tradition, situating a peaceful couple within a graceful and charming rural landscape. It also fits well into the permanent collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, complementing the over two thousand late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British drawings and watercolors, mostly topographical and academic subjects, given to the col- lege by Matthew Vassar in 1864 and purchased from the Reverend Elias Lyman Magoon at the time of the founding of the college. This particular sheet came from a gift of thirty-three watercolors and drawings by Row- landson given in 1953 by Mr. and Mrs. Francis Fitz Randolph (Mary E. Hill, class of 1945–4).

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu