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Comforts of Bath: 'Ball at the Upper Assembly

image © Victoria Art Gallery Bath & North East Somerset Council | All Rights Reserved

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Date

1789

Artist

Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57-1827)

Collection

Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

Description

Balls were held at several venues in Bath. This shows the Assembly Rooms, in which the Museum of Costume is now housed. The Rooms were designed by John Wood the younger and opened in 1771. Here Rowlandson depicts a throng of dancers, their audience and the orchestra. The image is full of activity, energy and life. Thomas Rowlandson was one of the foremost comic artists of the Georgian period. He is best known for his social satires, but also produced portraits, marine paintings and landscapes. Rowlandson is thought to have visited Bath with the amateur caricaturist John Nixon. Rowlandson's series 'The Comforts of Bath' was published in 1798. Satirising life and society in Bath, the twelve s encompassed all the essential elements of a fashionable person's stay in the city: going to a ball, taking the waters, gambling, and eating good food. Each of the s includes the figure of an overweight, gouty gentleman in a full-bottomed wig. For Rowlandson this character represented the typical visitor to Bath.

Image Licence

All Rights Reserved

Image Credit

image © Victoria Art Gallery Bath & North East Somerset Council

Location

Bath Assembly Rooms, Bath, England

Country

Tags

Leisure
Social Life
Interiors

Category

People & Society

Glossary
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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform