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The Pretty Bar Maid, c1780-1825. Creator: Thomas Rowlandson

The Pretty Bar Maid, c1780-1825. In Rowlandson's work, on the one hand, there is a delicate delineation of exaggerated commonplaceness and, on the other, sensitive realism. Alteration, distortion, and enlargement of feature and body are often employed beyond reason, but in the hands of Rowlandson there seems to be an unseen force to indicate the limits to which he could go - to however eccentric, grotesque, or fanciful lengths his imagination might lead him. His characters seem true to type; he was able to animate them, whether they were humorous, frivolous, ironic, or bitter'. 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]

© Shirley Markham Collection/Heritage Images

The 3 Customers, 1878, (c1918). Creator: Randolph Caldecott

The 3 Customers, 1878, (c1918). Three women arrive at John Gilpin's draper's shop just as he is about to set off. He delays leaving to serve them. John Gilpin was the subject of a comic ballad of 1782 by William Cowper entitled "The Diverting History of John Gilpin". The ballad, based on real-life character, describes how, on a journey to Edmonton (north in London), Gilpin, a draper, became separated from his wife and children after losing control of his horse, and ended up in the town of Ware, ten miles away from his intended destination. From "The Diverting History of John Gilpin", by William Cowper. [Frederick Warne and Co. London & New York, c1918]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images