Pidgeon Hole. A Convent Garden Contrivance to Coop up the Gods

Thomas Rowlandson|Thomas Tegg

February 20, 1811 · Hand-colored etching; reprint · Drawings and Prints

Rowlandson here alludes to the discomfort working-class audiences endured at the new Theatre Royal Covent Garden. After fire destroyed the old building in 1808, Robert Smirke designed an auditorium able to accommodate more than three thousand people and replaced many inexpensive seats with private boxes. As a result, humble ticket holders were forced to sit in arched galleries near the ceiling, nicknamed "pigeon holes," from which they could barely see the stage or hear the actors. The print suggests that the cramped conditions were deliberately planned to suppress lower-class energies. While a powerfully built man at center looks potentially dangerous, and another vomits onto the private boxes below, most dose off, wilt in the heat, or are distracted by companions.

Artist

Thomas Rowlandson|Thomas Tegg

Date

February 20, 1811

Medium

Hand-colored etching; reprint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959