A Courtezan & Frizeur

Date1772

Publisher 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 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)
Other (Plate): 7 × 5in. (17.8 × 12.7cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,80

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "5"
Lower margin reads: "A COURTEZAN& FRIZEUR./ Pub.d accord.g to Act August 9.th by M Darly 39 Strand"

This plate shows two figures, a woman walking away with her back to the viwer, and a man shown in profle. She is elaborately dressed in a cloak and dress of purple. The cloak has a hood lined in blue and trimmed with gold braid. The bottom of the cloak and the bottom of the dress are ornately embroidered in white. She wears a high white conical cap trimmed with lace and ribbons of white and purple to match the dress. The man holds a gold tasselled cane in his left hand and which he rests on his shoulder. His right hand is thrust under his waistcoat. He is also extremely well dressed in orange coat with what looks like gold epaulettes; a light blue waistcoat with gold braid, and ivory patterned breeches. He wears a black laced hat with gold trim and a bag wig with a hugh bow.
Label TextThe print is plate 5 from volume IV of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "VOL. IV. of Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures." This print depicts a courtesan with an elaborate hairstyle followed by a "frizeur" or hairdresser dressed in typical "macaroni" style. He wears a short coat, carries a cane, the small, cocked hat, and his hair in a bag with an exaggerated bow.

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).