
Read the visual description
This print features a scene in a barber shop. In the center, a tall person with a pointed nose and chin wearing a large white wig holds a shaving bowl. To the right, a person covered in a white cloth sits in a chair looking upwards, their chin covered in a white substance. A person on the left in front of a large blue window appears to wash their hands in a bowl, while another in the background uses a tool to press down on a wig that rests on a mannequin head. The characters all have light skin and wear garments in blue or white. Hanging from the ceiling is a blue sign that reads "The oldest shaving shop in London, most mony for second hand wigs." There is a bird cage perched above the window on the left.
National Gallery of Art · Print
A Penny Barber
Thomas Rowlandson
- Date
- 1789
- Medium
- hand-colored etching and aquatint
- Dimensions
- sheet: 36.3 × 25.5 cm (14 5/16 × 10 1/16 in.)
- Classification
- Accession number
- 1945.5.585
- Credit line
- Rosenwald Collection
- Time span
- 1776 to 1800
- Department
- CG-E
Subjects and terms
- British
- Seated figure
- interior
- architecture
- Costume
- Man
NGA object ID 31364. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.