Thomas Rowlandson "Pillory, Charing Cross" by Rowlandson from "The Microcosm of London", 1809

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"Pillory, Charing Cross" is an illustration (Plate 62) from "The Microcosm of London", published in London in 1809 by R … Read more "Pillory, Charing Cross" is an illustration (Plate 62) from "The Microcosm of London", published in London in 1809 by R Ackermann's Repository of Arts. The scene was created by one of the most famous British satirists and caricaturists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries' Georgian Period, Thomas Rowlandson, who drew the figures, while Augustus Charles Pugin drew the architecture. The plate was then created by Hill, Stadler and Bluck using a combination of aquatint and etching and was then hand colored with watercolor. Scenes illustrated in "The Microcosm of London" gives an accurate and often comical view of everyday life in London during the Regency Period of the early 19th century. While Pugin’s excellent architectural drawings capture the size and shape of the exterior as well as the interior of London’s principal buildings, Thomas Rowlandson’s insightful and often whimsical and satirical view of the city's inhabitants depicts the color and vitality of the late Georgian society, both rich and poor alike.
This print depicts the "Pillory, Charing Cross", where criminals were brought and placed on display while secure in the stocks, as are seen in this print. A crowd is present in the square jeering at the prisoners. A statue of Charles I on horseback stands atop a very large pillar to the right. Shops with apartments are seen on the left. Young wealthy people frolic around and on a carriage on the right in front of the statue of King Charles.

The print is held in the collections of many museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The British Museum and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is presented in an older brown wood frame, highlighted with gold colored inner trim, with a cream colored double mat with grey inner mat. There is a tiny spot in the left lower margin and another in the upper margin and a suggestion of a few more faint spots. The frame has several defects. See less