Reflections, or the music lesson

Rowlandson, Thomas (1756 or 1757-1827)

Item type:

drawing

Date of creation:

late 18th-early 19th c.

Height:

11.7 cm  (4 5/8 in.)

Width:

15.7 cm  (6 3/16 in.)

Technique / Medium:

watercolor and graphite with pen and gray ink and pen and brown ink on medium, moderately textured cream wove paper

Description

This cartoon depicts (on the right side) an elderly man seated facing a fireplace and expressing shock when he sees, reflected in the mirror above the fireplace, a scene (drawn on the left) of romantic flirting between the young male music teacher and pretty young girl at the keyboard of a harpsichord positioned behind his chair.

Iconclass

48C7211
musician training pupils, music lesson
31A51111
reflection (in a mirror)
32A5
caricatures
33C2
lovers; courting, flirting
31D162
ugly old man
31D5
young versus old age; young and old
48C733
keyboard instruments

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Harpsichord [2251] (or pianoforte or other keyboard instrument; with hand stops)

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Barringer, Timothy J. Art & music in Britain: Four encounters, 1730-1900 (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2006) 16, 19, 45.

RIdIM record id

6281