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Broad grins

Maker

(artist)
1757-1827

Title

Broad grins

Date of Production

after 1823

Medium

graphite, pen and grey-brown ink, watercolour on wove paper, laid down on card

Dimensions

Height: 22.7 cm
Width: 29.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2199

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

A popular caricaturist, Thomas Rowlandson skewered most of the people he portrayed with varying degrees of crudeness, but this rendering of a Black man menaced by a crocodile is especially cruel. One of Rowlandson’s favoured techniques was making unflattering comparisons between people and animals, although in most cases the target of his pen was white. Reflective of widespread European attitudes towards people of colour at the time, this drawing’s deeply offensive nature is all too apparent today.

Provenance

anonymous sale, Sotheby's (London), 15 December 1937, lot 1 (as part of an album); purchased there by Colnaghi (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, 24 January 1938 (£4); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Cartoonists of the British School, East Kent and Folkestone Arts Centre, Folkestone, UK, 16/03/1968-20/04/1968

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948

Literature

Meyer, Arline, 'Man's Animal Nature: Science, Art, and Satire in Thomas Rowlandson's "Studies in Comparative Anatomy" in 'Humans and Other Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Culture: Representation, Hybridity, Ethics', Aldershot, England and Burlington, Vermont, 2006 - 119-36
pp. 133-34
fig. 16

Hayes, John, Rowlandson: Watercolours and Drawings, London, 1972
no. 116
ill. on p. 181

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 42 ...More

Some British Drawings from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1948
no. 66 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: upper centre: "J WHATMAN / 1823".

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

Inscription: Recto: lower left edge, title in capitals in grey ink, the rest added in brown ink: "BROAD GRINS. or staring a Man out of countenance."; lower right edge, grey ink, signed: "T. Rowlandson.". Verso: lower right corner, graphite, faint: "4".

Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.

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