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1 of 253523 objects
A Midnight Conversation c.1780
Pen and black ink with watercolour over pencil | 29.5 x 44.3 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 913713
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A watercolour of drunken revellers seated around a small circular table. On the left a man has collapsed between two women, one of whom embraces him. In the centre of the table, an older woman wearing a cap clutches a large punch bowl and on the far right, a woman leans over her male companion to vomit on the floor. A bust is on the wall on the left and a large picture hangs in the background. This early drawing, made shortly after Rowlandson left the Royal Academy Schools, pokes fun at the ‘Conversation Piece’, a fashionable form of group portrait. Here, a drunken, debauched party is shown in the private room of a tavern. Many of the motifs are copied from prints by Hogarth, among them the lounging man to the left, who is taken from plate three of 'A Rake’s Progress'.
Provenance
Purchased by the Prince Regent from Colnaghi, 23 March 1812, for £1 1s (RA GEO/MAIN/27835)
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Pen and black ink with watercolour over pencil
Measurements
29.5 x 44.3 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 13713Bibliographic reference(s)
O(E) : Oppé, A.P., 1950. English Drawings in the Collection of His Majesty The King at Windsor Castle, London no. 511