EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 29 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

93 Gallery: Thomas Rowlandson An English artist and caricaturist from the Georgian era, Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) was noted for his political satire and keen social observation. He also wrote satirical verse under the pen-name of Peter Pindar. Like other pre-Victorian caricaturists such as James Gillray, he also depicted characters in bawdy postures and produced erotic ephemera which was censored by the 1840s. BELOW: The Sculptor or Preparations for the Academy, Old Joseph Nollekens and his Venus , hand-coloured etching, ca. 1800. Sir Joseph Nollekens sculpted classical gods and contemporary busts that helped popularize Neoclassical taste in Britain. Shown here in his sixties, Nollekens needs spectacles to work on a clay model of Venus and Cupid intended for the next Royal Academy exhibition, but his lecherous expression and flushed cheeks suggest his undiminished ability to appreciate the nude who perches amidst the statuary. A large sculpted head of Jupiter, a god notorious for his many affairs, also eyes the model and the image suggests high-minded aesthetic pursuits falter when confronted with the attraction of living beauty. FOLLOWING PAGES: Miseries of London , hand-coloured etching, February 1, 1807. In the early nineteenth century, London overtook Beijing to become the largest city in the world. The resulting congestion made London streets not only slow but terribly noisy. Rowlandson drew a farcical scene of city traffic, with chaotic sidewalks and streets mobbed with people, construction mishaps, and a stream of colliding carriages. The carriage drivers turn their whips on one another, and the passengers are in an uproar. The inscription points out that such ordeals “allow you at least an hour or more than you require to sharpen your wits for table talk.”