Thomas Rowlandson was a convivial man who enjoyed gambling and drinking. But he also worked extremely hard, and made thousands of prints and drawings. His early drawings were heavily influenced by those of his tutor, John Hamilton Mortimer, who used sharp zigzag strokes. As he grew more experienced, Rowlandson found his own style of quick, fluent lines. By the late 1790s, Rowlandson’s work was well enough known that he could satirize himself in the drawing Buck’s Beauty and Rowlandson’s Connoisseur (cat. 49).