Thomas Rowlandson

Madame Romain.
La Belle Liminaudiere au Caffee de Mille Collone, Palais Royale Paris.
Madame Very Restaurateur, Palais Royal Paris.

9¼ x 6¾ inches

These caricatures are terrific fun. Bear in mind that they are English and that they date from 1814, a year before England and France were involved in the battle of all battles at Waterloo in the summer of 1815. They depict a notorious French beauty, the famous lemonade seller from Paris, Madame Romain. In these images she is seen at the peak of her perfection (aged 31) as the famously ravishing wife of Monsieur Romain, a successful but physically unappealing restaurateur. Romain, according to contemporary accounts, was short, sickly and one-armed, in contrast to his voluptuous wife who was noted as having "a complexion like Paris marble, and black eyes and hair in contrast with it". There was a ghoulish fascination as crowds came to see this mismatched couple and marvel at the beauty of the famous lemonade seller. Visitors travelled from afar to see her and some, like the Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott, were said to fall madly in love with her. Queues formed outside the cafe and profits soared until they moved to larger, grander premises at The Cafe de Milles Colonnes at The Cafe Royal. Crowds clamoured to get a glimpse of her, ladies aped both her couture and her coiffeur and men booked tables with an uninterrupted view. Rowlandson's depictions are not the most flattering with an exaggeration of features to make her appear corpulent rather than comely!

Just as it was all going so well, Monsieur Romain fell from his horse and died in 1826. The cafe was closed and the lovely lemonade seller retreated to a convent where she sat out the remainder of her days making jam.