Lot Essay
The present drawing is similar in style to those drawings executed for Comparative Anatomy. Resemblances between the Countenances of Men and Beasts, an album sold at Sotheby's London, 13 July 1989.
Rowlandson was interested in the study of physiognomy and produced a number of studies in the early 1820s comparing human features to those of sheep, birds, bulls and other animals. He drew inspiration from Giovanni della Porta's De Humana Physiognomonia, 1586 and also the physiognomic theories of J.C. Lavater (see lot 56).
Similar albums are held in the British Museum and the Houghton Library, Harvard.
The head study of the three figures merrymaking, was formerly in the collection of Gilbert Davis and was exhibited at the Arts Council.
Rowlandson was interested in the study of physiognomy and produced a number of studies in the early 1820s comparing human features to those of sheep, birds, bulls and other animals. He drew inspiration from Giovanni della Porta's De Humana Physiognomonia, 1586 and also the physiognomic theories of J.C. Lavater (see lot 56).
Similar albums are held in the British Museum and the Houghton Library, Harvard.
The head study of the three figures merrymaking, was formerly in the collection of Gilbert Davis and was exhibited at the Arts Council.