Thomas Rowlandson Full Practice Analysis

A Female Physician in Full Practice
I have chosen Thomas Rowlandson’s 1799 satirical drawing, Touch for Touch or a Female Physician in Full Practice, as my primary source. The artwork currently hangs in the Museum of London. The drawing includes two women and two men both of which are handing a member of the opposite sex money. The two women are dressed in long white dresses and the men are both dressed very differently. Both men seem to be hunched over and almost dirty. Rowlandson, who was both an artist and a caricaturist, was born in the streets of London in 1756. At the age of 43 he created Touch for Touch or a Female Physician in Full Practice. He was known for his erotic satirical drawings and artwork. At the age of 70 he died after

a prolonged illness and was buried in Covent Garden at St Paul’s.1 (https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/prostitution)

London 1799, George Fredrick III was king of Great Britain and the American Revolutionary War had just begun.

In the time of Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution Rowlandson (back then) erotic artwork would, I imagine, created quite a stir. With the 18th parliament in full swing they had their hands full with the American Revolutionary War. The year of playwright Richard Sheridan and poet Thomas Hood who wrote the famous, “I saw old Autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence."2 With up and coming Industrial Revolution women were succumbed to “traditional housewives roles”. So what if you weren't a housewife? One way to make a living was prostitution. Yes prostitution is seen as a taboo thing in the 21st century, in the 18th not so

much.

Prostitution was a common thing in the 17th and 18th century.

Often called harlots it wasn't uncommon for men especially those in the upper/rich class to pay for sex. When the two volume book “Nocturnal Revels” came out by one Monk of the Order of St. Francis it was a tell-all of who (and who hadn’t) gone to fetch a lady of the night. The book even talks about prostitution as being a necessity, stating, “Even in the state of matrimony itself, it often happens, that a man who holds his wife in the highest estimation, may be debarred the felicity of hymeneal raptures, from sickness, absence, and a variety of other temporary causes, which may with facility be imagined. If, in any of those situations, a man could not find temporary relief in the arms of prostitution, the peace of Society would be far more disturbed than it is...”3 Because prostitution was far from taboo in the earlier years of life in fact it was seen as a way of life for most single women in that time period, especially in London of 1799.

Touch for Touch by Thomas Rowlandson was one of his more interesting works of art for his time period even though he was quite often known for his erotic artwork. I suppose even in this century it could almost be seen as taboo just for the implications it brings up. The picture shows two women; one in the process of opening the door. The satirical art also shows two men one of which is handing a woman money. We can see in the background another “couple” standing very close to

each other.

Both the “harlots” in this artwork are wearing white. In most instances white stands for purity which could very much be the illusion they are both trying to pass off. Both men seem to be from two very different backgrounds. One man, the one who appears to be handing a women money is wearing a wig and has a sword on him which infers that he is upper class. The man in the background has long hair and appears to be scruffy inferring that he is of lower class status.

Finally, Rowlandson’s painting offers a look into the 18th century lifestyle of many single “working” women. Although a hard lifestyle many women made a living through prostitution and still do today. Its a taboo that may never leave our society.