Romantic Circles Gallery
Gallery Editors:
Theresa M. KelleyJacob Leveton
 1812 |
 The engraving depicts the lower room of the “Old Ashmolean” building at the University of Oxford. Various natural specimens, including a giraffe and a dodo, are evident, as well as two groups of... Delineator: Delamotte, William Alfred 1 December 1834 |
 The poem’s narrator gazes upon the ruins of Pompeii and imagines what took place on the date of the eruption. The narrator describes a crowded street that is instantly engulfed in a cloud of ash... 1848 |
 "Plate II" features seven illustrations to accompany Priestley’s text, including: a parabolic or burning mirror; a diagram of a convex lens used for magnification; a diagram of how light passes... 1772 |
 This line engraving depicts Cox’s Perpetual Clock, item number 47 in the Cox’s Lottery catalogue and one of Cox’s “star exhibit[s]” (Greater London Council 62). Much of the description of Cox’s... c. 1774-1775 |
 Dorothy Jordan, clad in a masculine riding dress has an open playbook in hand, “Act III. Enter Little Pickle." The Duke of Clarence, slightly ahead and in front of her, pulls the miniature royal... Delineator: Gillray, James 23 April 1797 |
 A phrenologist, identified as J. De Ville, places his right hand on the forehead of a young man who is kneeling at the center of the image. A well-dressed woman, probably the young man’s mother,... 4 February 1826 |
 On this album page a wreath formed of cut-outs of flowers and leaves serves as a frame for a poem composed by the nineteenth-century playwright and humorist Douglas Jerrold and addressed to Annie... |
 This image depicts a death's-head moth on a white background, with wings outstretched. 1831 |
 Gilded pages of Grellmann's Dissertaion on the Gipseys (London, 1807). 1807 |
 The Grand West Entrance to Jedburgh Abbey is at the perfect center of the composition. The sequence of intricately carved arches framing the comparatively small, rectangular door creates a tunneling... 19 September 1846 |
 This image, like Cavallo’s image of the process for inflating hot air balloons, was a popular element of accounts of balloon in late eighteenth-century print culture. Its focus on the means by which... 14 January 1784 |
 Lady Cecilia Johnstone is in profile, seated on a large golden chamber pot. Her brow is slightly furrowed and her gaze intensely focused. She rests her chin in her hand, her elbow propped upon her... Delineator: Gillray, James 19 September 1791 |
 The image is set in what appears to be a schoolroom. The master holds a stick above his head, preparing to give "strokes" to the young boy he grips by the elbow. The boy, dressed in a long coat and... 1829 |
 Dorothy George describes this print:
A complicated piece of machinery fills the centre of a room in a fashionable establishment; an open door (r.) leads into a shop where, in the... 1828 |
 This chart provides the "average," "full," "large," "very large," "moderate," "small," and "very small" sizes of the organs measured in each phrenological category. 1847 |
 This print portrays Lord Byron as the quintessential Romantic poet. He sits in three-quarter view, his face turned in profile to the left and resting on his right hand in the archetypal thinking pose... Engraver: Longacre, James Barton 1841 |
 John Auldjo, the artist himself, stands on the far right of the image, poking the lava with a cane and holding a cloth over his mouth. In the background, the eruption of Vesuvius’ small cone, Monte... 1845 |
 “Plate III” features four illustrations of rational recreations involving optics and illusions. Figure 1 illustrates the refraction of light through water in a vessel. Figure 2 diagrams alterations... 1774 |
 The image depicts a stone cenotaph, erected in a garden. Papworth’s skill in drawing is conveyed by his close attention to detail. The trees are depicted in different shades, and some appear to be in... c. March 1822 |
 This image provides multiple illustrations of skulls and famous busts, providing measurements for each by which organ size can be determined. Note especially the famous political figures, as well as... 1847 |
 This large map, measuring 71 x 98cm, details the topography of Rome and its environs, from Lacus Sabatinus [Lago di Bracciano] in the north to Norba in the south, and from Nerola in the east to the... September 1834 |
 View of Broad-bottom Bridge 1794 |
 The two remaining towers of Hadleigh Castle stand in the left register of the picture plane. A single scrawny tree grows between the decaying stone edifices. The surrounding hillside is completely... Engraver: Lucas, David 1830 |
 “Plate XIX” features eight figures to accompany the text entitled “Of Optics.” Figure 1 illustrates the manner in which light travels through a multiplying glass to the eye. Figure 2 diagrams the... Delineator: Ferguson, James 1764 |
 A view of the ruins of Uxmal depicts the House of the Nuns (on the left) and the House of the Dwarf (on the right). The House of the Nuns is a short, wide, one-story building with a series of small... Delineator: Catherwood, Frederick 1841 |
 “The balloon over Helsbye-Hill in Chester, at half past II on Thursday the 8th of September, 1785. It is seen in the southwest quarter. The view was taken in a high field, at the end of Sutton-... Delineator: Stothard, Thomas, Newton, R. 1 May 1786 |
 c. 1824-25 |
 In the saloon of Covent Garden Theatre, Tom and Jerry stand in the center surrounded by women in elegant evening dress, “gay Cyprians,” or courtesans (Egan 173). On the left sits a woman in a rigint-... Delineator: Cruikshank, George, Cruikshank, Isaac 1 July 1821 |
 c. 1790s |
 A large, stone head rests between other large, carved stone pieces and a tree. A male figure, clad in slacks, a coat, and a wide-brimmed hat sits in profile next to the stone head, staring off the... Delineator: Catherwood, Frederick 1843 |
 The image shows a man sitting up in bed, lifting one hand, as if explaining something. Clothes are drawn in an elaborate fashion with a close attention to such details as buttons and wrinkles. The... 1818 |
 A broad expanse of river fills the foreground of the image, narrowing in the center ground and stretching away from the viewer. A rocky bluff—descending in steep gradations to the water's edge—fills... Delineator: Gilpin, William 1798 |
 Within the elaborate frame printed on one page of the E. Boyes album by the book’s manufacturer, someone has pasted in shiny blue foil so as to form a second frame. This surrounds an arrangement... |
 This foldout guide to the "Moving Diorama of Venice" is divided into three large panels showing a series of "highlight" views of Venice, as if seen from a passing gondola. Ignoring the distance that... 1841 |
 In the corner of a room, five men examine the paintings hung on the two visible walls. On the right, a coarse figure identified at Mr. Mortimer, an art dealer and restorer, spits on one of the... 16 November 1807 |
 At the corner of Little Maddox Street and New Bond Street, a smirking and red-cheeked Lord Sandwich approaches from behind and fondles a young barrow woman selling carrots. The woman’s body is... Delineator: Gillray, James 3 December 1796 |
 This image depicts the Governor's House at Uxmal: it is a single-story, stone-brick building, lightly covered in vegetation and elevated upon a stone-brick platform. A variety of Mexican flora... Delineator: Norman, Benjamin Moore 1843 |
 The four-stepped, low-rising Pyramid of Cholula, covered in sparse vegetation, stands in a flat valley, surrounded by distant mountains. A stairway leads up from the base of the pyramid to the small... Delineator: Humboldt, Alexander von 1816 |
 In his A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, Andrew Ure provides a lengthy explanation for the mechanical workings displayed in this simple line-drawing. He begins by describing its... 1839 |
 The central image, figure 9, depicts one half of an Egyptian pebble, the interior of which seems to contain the image of a small, white face. This large, oblong pebble is encircled by other, much... 1791 |
 This scene is depicted from the low perspective of a river. In the right foreground, two trees extend their branches over the river. A structure with arched openings sits on the opposite bank; this... 1800 |
 Various ships are visible in the distance, and one ship in full sail sits directly beyond the coastal waters. Three poles emerge from the sea in the left foreground, indicating the shoreline; the... 1823 |
 With church spires rising above it in the very center of the background, Bartholmew Fair is in full swing, crowded with people and chaos. Overflowing the square—with the hospital on one side, a... Delineator: Rowlandson, Thomas 1808 |
 In this drawing of a printing machine patented by “Messrs. Applegath and Cowper,” two men work at the press while one man operates a fly-wheel pulley system. The figure at the back of the machine... 1839 |
 "Plate 57" features seven illustrations to accompany Book III of A Compleat System of Opticks, which describes the science behind a variety of optical and image-making machines, including a... 1738 |
 Carefully annotated sketches such as this one, which served as a basis for explanations of how hot air balloons were filled, were included in books such as Tiberius Cavallo’s 1785 The History and... 1 January 1785 |
 A great amount of snow covers the ground in this image. Many soldiers are partially or completely buried by it, and one soldier sits atop a horse whose legs are also buried. Each soldier wears an... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 23 January 1815 |
 A girl is sitting on a large grave in a cemetery, looking down. Behind her a large tree is depicted, a few tombstones, and a church. From beyond a fence bordering one side of the churchyard, a woman... 1834 |
 A man in a long cape and cloth cap holds a cane in his right hand and a large letter “B” in his left as he walks. He has a beard and moustache, and a rimmed black hat hangs from his neck. 1817 |
