The Simpling Macaroni

Date1772

Engraver M. Darly

Publisher Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Publisher Matthew Darly ca. 1720 - 1780

OriginEngland, London

MediumEtching and line engraving on laid paper with hand coloring

DimensionsOverall: 8 9/16 × 5 9/16in. (21.7 × 14.1cm)
Other (Plate): 7 1/8 × 5in. (18.1 × 12.7cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,69

DescriptionUpper left corner reads: "18"
Lower margin reads: "The SIMPLING MACARONI./ Like Soland-Goose from frozen Zone I wander,/Our shallow Bank's grow's fat, Sol ******./ Pub accor to Act by MDarly Strand July 13.th 1772"Label TextThe print is plate 18 from volume III of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature satirizes Dr. Daniel Solander (1733-1782) was a Swedish naturalist who promoted the Linnean system of classification, catalogued the natural history collections at the British Museum during the 1760s and 1770s, and was a figure of great interest in London society. He accompanied Sir Joseph Banks (see CW 1955-62, 68) and Captain James Cook on the 1768 expedition to the Pacific where he collected plant specimens from Australia and New Zealand. This journey made him the first Swede to travel around the world. The OED describes the word "sampling" as gathering of medicinal herbs. The inscription on the curved blade read "Savigny" which is a reference to knife maker. When this print was published, Solander had just returned from Iceland along with Banks, whose caricature "The Fly Catching Macaroni" (CW 1955-62, 68) was published the day before and is a companion to this satire.

The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team capitalized on the craze for caricatures, the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect, a form that 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).