Grub Street Macaroni
Date1772
Maker
M. Darly
Publisher
Mary Darly
1760 - 1781
Publisher
Matthew Darly
ca. 1720 - 1780
Possibly by
Richard St. George Mansergh St. George
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching
DimensionsOverall: 8 9/16 × 9 3/16in. (21.7 × 23.3cm)
Other: 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)
Other: 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,34
DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "8" Lower margin reads: "THE GRUB STREET MACARONI./ Pub accor to Act Feby 3d. 1772 by MDarly Strand."Label TextThe print is plate 8 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Caricatures Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies and Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature features its subject as a struggling Grub Street writer. He's dressed in a second-hand coat based on the tag still attached to the button on his pocket that reads: "J. Twigg / Monmouth Street." Grub Street in London was known for its prolific publishing houses that published periodicals and it became synonymous with literary hacks or hired writers for hire. Under his arm he holds a red volume with the inscription "Dedicated to My Lord S******."
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).
