Italian Picture Dealers Humbugging My Lord Anglaise

Thomas Rowlandson

May 30, 1812 · Hand-colored etching · Drawings and Prints

A handsome English lord visiting Italy is introduced to a disreputable art dealer by an obese nobleman. The grimaces and gestures of the Italians suggest that they intend to defraud, or "humbug," the tourist. A voluptuous Mary Magdalene, purportedly by Guido Reni, is propped on a table for inspection and all the works on display undoubtedly are copies. When this print was published in 1812, Britain and France had been at war for two decades and Englishmen could not visit Italy. A partially erased date of 1806 in the lower right corner indicates that Rowlandson conceived the image when southern Italy remained accessible but issued it at a time when making a Grand Tour had become a nostalgic memory.

Artist

Thomas Rowlandson

Date

May 30, 1812

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959