Rowlandson, Thomas

(born July 1756, London, Eng.—died April 22, 1827, London) British caricaturist. The son of a merchant, he studied at the Royal Academy and in Paris. After establishing a portrait studio, he began to draw caricatures to supplement his income, and found such success with them that caricature became his major occupation. The comic images he created lampooned familiar social types of his day—the antiquarian, the blowsy barmaid, the hack writer. He also illustrated editions of the novels of Tobias Smollett, Oliver Goldsmith, and Laurence Sterne.

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