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Thomas Rowlandson

The son of a bankrupt wool and silk merchant, Rowlandson was educated at Dr. Barrow's School and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1772. He made his first trip to Paris, where he had relatives, probably in 1774, and in 1777 he won a silver medal at the Royal Academy. During the next two decades he made several continental tours, visiting France, Italy, Germany, and Holland, as well as traveling extensively in England and Wales. In 1789 he received a comfortable legacy from his aunt, which he is traditionally said to have gambled away. From 1798 much of his work was for the print publisher Ackermann, most notably for the The Tours of Dr. Syntax and The Microcosm of London. He revisited France in 1814 and Italy in about 1820, and worked almost until the end of his life.