Eighteenth-Century Studies

Abstract:

This essay reads Thomas Rowlandson’s well-known satiric print, Connoisseurs, first by recognizing two of the four connoisseurs and analyzing the visual narrative of which they are a part, and then by tracing the significance of the two paintings depicted. The goal is to push an understanding of Rowlandson’s own comic take on the “gazing game” past the routine entanglements of biography and allusion into a richer appreciation for the art-historical moment and for exactly the kind of connoisseurship being mocked. To that end, the essay pays particular attention to Rowlandson’s own imitations after old masters and to auction records that provide valuable clues about the artist, his colleagues, his patrons, and the paintings that were most desirable among wealthy collectors of the day.