Cotmania. Vol. XI. 1935-6

{Newspaper cutting}

DRAWINGS BY ROWLANDSON
At the Sabine Gallery, 154, New Bond Street, there is an exhibition of no fewer than 109 drawings by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827). This is an occasion for keen artistic pleasure. Because he was a caricaturist and did not paint in oil Rowlandson has never been rated at his proper value in England, though some foreign writers place him among the greatest that we have produced. He was unequal, and his characteristic “calligraphy” sometimes became mechanical, but at his best, apart from his racy humour, he produced works of extreme beauty. Particularly welcome in this exhibition are the landscape studies. “Major Cloude’s Park, near Liskeard, Cornwall,” for instance, a study of tree-shaded water with a girl feeding ducks, is a perfectly exquisite drawing, with a delicacy of tone worthy of Gainsborough, and “Cottage near the Devil’s Jump, Duchy of Cornwall, 1812,” and “The Toll Gate” are other delightful things. The exhibition does not neglect Rowlandson’s robust humour, but its chief interest is on the poetical and technical side.”

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{Kitson's annotation}

‘The Times’ 7.4.’36.