2-871-256 - Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

The Village Fair, c1780-1825. '"Buy a song, one penny..." - one of the street cries in England during Rowlandson's time. His crowd, beautifully composed, gives us as principal figures the performers and the attentive few; there are bystanders in small groups, while others are generally restless and disinterested. Control of composition is as vital an element in the artist's technical equipment as his perception and understanding of each individual, all of which makes this picture of the fair teem with life and naturalness. The architectural notes in the thatched-roof inn and village church give the picture a high degree of local atmosphere...fashioned from his lavish store of material collected during Rowlandson's extensive travels through the boroughs and hamlets of England'. From "The Watercolour Drawings of Thomas Rowlandson from the Albert H. Wiggin Collection in the Boston Public Library" with commentary by Arthur W. Heintzelman. [Watson-Guptill Publications, Inc., New York, 1947]