Chapter 14 - Encouraging Rowlandson: The Women Who Mattered

Summary

In the early stages of Thomas Rowlandson’s printmaking career, at least ninety of his prints are known to have been issued by women publishers, including Elizabeth Jackson, Hannah Humphrey, Elizabeth d’Achery, and Eleanor Lay. Of these, Jackson in particular had an important role in establishing his printmaking. The full extent of her production, for a long time obscured by the later sale of her plates to Samuel Fores, is only just emerging; several recent new discoveries suggest an even wider involvement by her in Rowlandson’s early non-satirical prints. While there is relatively little to be found in the historical record about these enterprising women, evidence from the prints shows the women were successful entrepreneurs, commissioning their own caricature output and collaborating commercially with other printsellers. Another figure of particular interest is Rowlandson’s younger sister Elizabeth, who, after her separation from her husband, the artist Samuel Howitt, also operated as a printseller for over twenty years. She was also an artist and even made a few caricature prints herself after her brother’s drawings, some of which are identified here for the first time.