Laughter (Le Brun Travested, or Caricatures of the Passions)

A brown-ink etching shows a broadly laughing man with curly hair and a pointing hand, leaning toward a small child in a frilled bonnet who sits on a table with a cat beside a lit candlestick. The caricatured faces exaggerate expression, and a caption in the lower margin explains the scene.

Look closer: A small caption in the lower margin, and a tiny lit candle flame at the upper right.

Artist

Thomas Rowlandson

Date

January 21, 1800

Medium

Etching, printed in brown ink

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2960 × 3666 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959