The dance of death: the last stage. Coloured aquatint after T. Rowlandson, 1816.

  • Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827.
Date:
1816
Reference:
31878i
Part of:
English dance of death, from the designs of Thomas Rowlandson, with metrical illustrations, by the author of "Dr Syntax".
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Publication/Creation

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified]

Physical description

1 print : aquatint, with watercolour ; image 12.1 x 19.5 cm

Lettering

From hour to hour, from youth to age, life's trav'ller takes th'uncertain stage.

Creator/production credits

In 1814 the humorous artist Thomas Rowlandson started to create a distinctive "English Dance of death": Rowlandson produced watercolours of contemporary scenes showing death, and William Combe (a writer) wrote verses describing the scenes. In addition to Combe's verses, each aquatint is accompanied by a couplet in English verse by an unidentified author, and the aquatints were coloured in watercolour by unkown hands. The combined pictures and texts were published by Rudolph Ackermann from his shop in the Strand, London, at a rate of three prints a month from 1 April 1814 to 1 March 1816

References note

R.R. Wark, Rowlandson's drawings for the English dance of death, San Marino, California 1966, pp. 3-27
J.R. Abbey, Life in England in aquatint and lithography 1770-1860, San Francisco 1991, no. 263.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 31878i

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