The Chamber of Genius

Thomas Rowlandson

The Chamber of Genius

London, T Rowlandson, April 2^nd 1812

Etching

Original hand colouring

240 x 315 mm

£350

A rare Rowlandson.

In a squalid room a man in a frenzy of inspiration, stern and intent, sits at an easel painting on a canvas on which is the large head of a (?) minatory Hebrew prophet. He wears a shirt with one tattered boot and one slipper, and a cloth tied over his head. In his left hand is a pen, and he appears unconscious of a large cat which claws at his bare legs. His pretty wife sleeps with a carefree expression on a make-shift bed (across which his breeches are thrown), while a naked infant beside her pours the contents of a bottle into a glass. On the table are coffee-pot, &c. An older child, almost naked, sits in a tub facing the fire plying a pair of bellows and is in great danger from a kettle and a red-hot poker. The other pursuits of the genius are indicated by two large books, on which he rests a foot, a violin and a French horn, a syringe, a pair of scales, a retort standing on a small furnace; a classical bust on a bracket. A cord stretches across the room on which hang tattered stockings and a piece of drapery. On the wall hang a sword and tricorne hat, with three prints: ‘Araeostation’ [sic], a balloon ascending, reminiscent of Rowlandson’s ‘Aerostation out at Elbows . . .’ (No. 6858); a woman ballet dancer, and an ugly profile head inscribed ‘Peter Testa’. Above the fireplace (right) are a string of onions and a bunch of tallow dips. A dish of food with knife and fork is on the floor. There is a casement window. Below the title:
‘Want is the Scorn of every wealthy Fool
And Genius in Rags is turn’d to Ridicule— Juvl Satire