The Breakfast

Date1789

MediumEtching and aquatint on paper

Dimensions28.5 x 38.5 cm

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Bequeathed by Mrs J. H. Twigg through her nephew Surgeon Captain F. J. D. Twigg, 1937.

Object number803

DescriptionThis is an intaglio (etching and aquatint) print with hand painted watercolour additions on paper.

Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, London. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy. At the age of sixteen, he lived and studied for a time in Paris, and he later made frequent tours to the Continent.

Rowlandson’s designs were usually done in outline with the reed-pen, and delicately washed with colour. They were then etched by the artist on the copper, and afterwards aquatinted --usually by a professional engraver, the impressions being finally coloured by hand. As a designer he was characterized by the utmost facility and ease of draughtsmanship, and the quality of his art suffered from this haste and over-production.

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