The Rabbit Merchant

Rowlandson depicts a scene of a ruddy-faced door-to-door trader presenting his wares to a hideous old crone and a buxom young girl. He frequently presented contrasting human ‘types’ in his caricature drawings, and this kind of subject was common in an age when physical ugliness was equated to moral degeneracy.

Drawing in ink with a reed pen, Rowlandson’s wiry outlines create and energy and rhythm in the drawing.