A Grinning Match

Etcher Thomas Rowlandson British
 After Henry William Bunbury British
 Publisher Rudolph Ackermann, London British

Not on view

Grego describes a 1799 version of this image as designed by Bunbury, and characterizes the scene as "a party of rustics, whose rude features are more rudely burlesqued, are grouped around a barrel to assist in an exhibition of "face-making." The challenge runs thus: "A gold Ring to be Grinned for the frightfu'lest Grinner to be the winner." Mounted on a tub is one of the champions, round his head is the traditional setting for a horse collar, and he is succeeding in making the most fearful grimaces, to the consequent delight of the spectators."

A Grinning Match, Thomas Rowlandson (British, London 1757–1827 London), Hand-colored etching

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