Somerset House, Strand, from "Ackermann's Repository"
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Hamill and Barker
Accession Number
1961-105-282
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Thomas Rowlandson’s 1809 print captures Somerset House along London’s Strand, offering a glimpse of one of the city’s most important neoclassical landmarks. A prolific British artist celebrated for his witty caricatures and lively urban scenes, Rowlandson contributed regularly to Rudolph Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, a fashionable monthly publication that brought hand-colored prints of architecture, fashion, and daily life into middle-class homes. This particular view reflects the early nineteenth-century taste for topographical imagery that celebrated London’s transformation into a modern m...