Exhibition of water-colored drawings

The annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colors was a novelty in 1808, for the members of the organization had only come together a few years before. They felt that the Royal Academy, London's more official art organization, with its heavy emphasis on oil painting, did not sufficiently value watercolor, and so the watercolorists struck off on their own. As always, Rowlandson was brilliant at capturing people unawares. Visitors drift to and fro with their little exhibit brochures, but most sit, talk, or flirt—and the children are, as always, bored.