Oddities (January 1792)
Original title: Oddities
kurzbeschreibung
Five male heads with contorted expressions and striking hairstyles are the focus of Thomas Rowlandson's etching "Oddities", made in January 1792. The hand-colored print in landscape format measures 18.8 by 26.1 centimetres and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Description
Five portraits of men are lined up side by side, and their faces and coiffures differ sharply from one another. The heads look greatly enlarged, with jutting noses, eyes and mouths exaggerated into caricature. Each figure's clothing appears in a different colour, dominated by pale pastel tones. Even light falls across the sheet without strong shadows or highlights, which stresses the flatness of the layout.
Context
Rowlandson made the etching in London in January 1792, at a moment when English caricature was flourishing. The artist was known for his satirical pictures of social life and worked with publishers such as Rudolph Ackermann. Caricatures of those years took up social and political events, and Rowlandson often drew on figure types from everyday city life.
Impact
The overblown faces and hairstyles come across as comic, almost grotesque, and are likely to raise a smile. Because the colours are applied evenly and the outlines stay crisp, the figures keep a lightness that supports the satirical tone.
Technique
For this hand-coloured etching, the lines were first bitten into the printing plate and then painted by hand. The pastel tones reached the paper only after printing, as was usual in British caricature production of the late eighteenth century. This allowed the delicate lines to be reproduced precisely while each impression could be coloured individually.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)