Study for 'Gaming House', ca. 1808

Thomas Rowlandson (1757 - 1827)

RA Collection: Art

A pen and ink study for Thomas Rowlandson's 1808 etching entitled 'Gaming House - Where a Parcell of Sharks meet, to bite one anothers Heads off' (there is an example in the collection, 08/3915). This drawing relates to the group of men in the print wearing top hats seated at the table in the background who are still involved in the game. The finished etching also includes numerous spectators standing around the table and a group of disgruntled losers gathered by the fire in the left foreground.

The print was the frontispiece to The Beauties of Tom Brown: consisting of humorous pieces in prose and verse selected from the works of that satirical and lively writer. To which is prefixed a Life of the Author, by the late Charles Henry Wilson (London: T. & R. Hughes, 1808).

The drawing was in the collection of the artist Carel Weight RA, who bought it from the Squire Gallery, London. Weight bequeathed the drawing to the Royal Academy along with some other works by Rowlandson, including an impression of the etching for this drawing (08/3915).