March 1, 1812. Catching an Elephant. Published by T. Tegg (146).—Two attractive and winsome damsels, standing outside a portal labelled 'Warm Baths,' have just succeeded in capturing an elderly colossus of a man, whose bulk should fairly entitle him to take his place amongst elephantine monsters; the expression of his senile features is designed to carry out the resemblance.
March, 1812. Description of a Boxing Match between Ward and Quirk for 100 Guineas a side. Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.
March 2, 1812. Spanish Cloak. Rowlandson del. Published by T. Tegg (39).—A superior officer, going his midnight rounds of the sentries posted on a line of fortifications, is amused at discovering the phenomenon of two pairs of legs below one cloak. A trooper has taken advantage of his ample garment to smuggle in a fair companion to share his vigils. The lady seems to enjoy her situation.
March 20, 1812. Fast Day. Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.—Four learned Doctors, dressed in their clerical vestments, are keeping in their own fashion a day set apart by the Church for general mortification. The portly four are seated at a well-furnished board, and trains of servants are, with respectful attention, bringing in fresh supplies—poultry, dainty meats, and other delicacies. The well-stocked collegiate cellars have been laid under contribution; bottles of choice vintage are standing in wine-coolers and in promising rows on the floor, beside a liberal jorum of punch in a Bowl for a Bishop. The nature of the private meditations of these epicurean worthies is thus made manifest, while the order of the repast is further set forth in a lengthy bill of fare irreverently written on a New Form of Prayer for the Fast Day, by way of menu. The walls are suggestively hung with Lists of the Great Tithes and such congenial paintings as A Bench of Bishops, represented regaling at a roystering banquet, Susannah and the Elders, Brasenose College, &c.
March 25, 1812. Sea Stores.—A bevy of females consisting of a negress and other beauties from the purlieus of the port, 'waiting for Jack,' are sportively accosted by a dapper young midshipman who has been sent on shore to procure supplies for his ship, which is lying off. (Companion print to Land Stores.)
March, 1812. Land Stores.—A dark beauty, of colossal proportions, is embraced by an officer whose figure is dwarfed by comparison with the monster negress. A placard posted on the walls of the fortification, where these extraordinary Land Stores are supposed to be lodged, announces 'Voluntary subscription for a soldier's widow; the smallest donations will be gratefully received,' &c.
April 2, 1812. The Chamber of Genius. Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street.
Want is the scorn of every wealthy fool,
And genius in rags is turned to ridicule.—Vide 'Satirist.'
The apartment of an enthusiastic genius, whose ambitions seem to have taken various forms of expression. Music, painting, sculpture, literature, chemistry, and other arts and sciences seem to have occupied his attention by turns, and instruments suggestive of the respective pursuits are muddled up with domestic details incidental to the confinement of a wife and family to one solitary chamber, together with the utensils of cookery, besides the food itself. The genius has left his rest under the impulse of an inspiration; he has an old nightcap worn over his wig, and is still in his night-shirt, with down-at-heel slipper on one foot, and a ragged stocking on the other. He is seated, in an attitude expressive of sudden exaltation before an easel which bears the canvas he is filling out with rapid energy; his left hand grasps a pen, and a black cat in demanding attention has fixed her claws in his unclad limbs; but the artist is so absorbed in his subject as to be unconscious of pain; miscellaneous litter, a bust, a palette, and a sheaf of brushes, paint-pots, a still and furnace, books, scales, syringes, a fiddle, and a post horn are scattered behind the easel. The female companion of this genius is tranquilly sleeping in an easy attitude through all the confusion; on the table by the bedstead (on which her husband's garments are displayed) is a coffee-pot and some suggestions of breakfast; an unclad infant is leaning over the table, and pouring gin into a wineglass. Another semiclad child is seated on a tub before a blazing fire, amusing herself with the bellows, and is in danger from a steaming kettle and a red-hot poker. Food, knives, forks, plates, and a pewter quart-pot are at the artist's feet; he has just kicked over a large porringer of milk, and is heedless of the mischief. Lamps, caudle-boats, strings of candles, and bunches of onions are the decorations of the chimneypiece; ragged clothes and unmended stockings are hanging over a rope stretched across the chamber; on the wall is hung a smart three-cornered hat and a sword by the side of pictures of 'Aerostation' and the portraits of a ballet-dancer and 'Peter Tester.'
Rowlandson has put his own name to the print as the 'inventor;' the satire is very unsparing, and the squalor he has attributed to his professional brother is of the direst and most ludicrous description, but the figure of the painter is marked with vigorous characteristics, and the outline of the face which he has bestowed on his erratic genius, designedly or not, bears a suggestive resemblance to his own strongly-defined features.