The Female Turf Macaroni

Date1771

Publisher Matthew Darly ca. 1720 - 1780

Publisher Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Engraver M. Darly

OriginEngland, London

MediumHand -colored etching with line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 8 9/16 × 5 9/16in. (21.7 × 14.1cm)
Other (Plate): 6 7/16 × 4 5/16in. (16.4 × 11cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,30

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "4"
Lower margin reads: "THE FEMALE TURF MACARONI./ Pub.d by MDarly Decem.r 24.th 1771 accord.g to Act."Label TextThe print is plate 4 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Caricatures Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies and Gentleman Artists &c. This caricature is thought to represent the Duchess of Grafton, the Duke being the Turf Macaroni in this series (1955-62,13). She is represented in full length profile wearing an orange habit with gold trim. She holds a riding whip in her right hand. Her brown hair is tied up in a club. She wears a cravat and a blue cap with an erect plume of blue feathers.

The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team who capitalized on the craze for caricatures -- the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect. This form was brought back by aristocratic Britons who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Many of the Darly's satirized the manners and fashions of the macaroni, a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period, and subsequently, regardless of subject, the Darly's prints were known as "macaroni prints."

Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters, such as macaronis, all based on their own drawings and those submitted to them by amateur artists lambasting their friends, artists, and other figures in London life. The front page of Volume I describes them as “…a Series of Drol[l] Prints consisting of Heads, Figures, Conversations and Satires upon the follies of the Age…” These prints were published in groups of 24, in six volumes that were published between 1771 and 1773. Colonial Williamsburg owns volumes 1-4.ProvenanceBefore 1955, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1955-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).