The Vaux Hall Demi-Rep

Date1772

Maker M. Darly

Maker Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Maker 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 number1955-62,84

DescriptionUpper right corner: "9"
Lower margin reads: "The VAUXHALL DEMI-REP./ Publish'd according to Act Aug.t 20. 1772 by M Darly, No 39, Strand."Label TextThe print is plate 9 from volume IV of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "VOL. IV. of Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures." The Vauxhall Gardens were pleasure gardens in a public park in Kensington, London that was the site of many concerts, masquerades, theatrical productions, and public spectacles from the 17th century until the mid-19th century. A demi-rep, or a woman whose sexual reputation was questioned by her peers, but who was able to maintain status in fashionable circles either by her own finances or the backing and support of her male lover. This print can be seen as a lower-class version of the Pantheon No Rep (1955-62, 42) caricature, which features the famous actress and singer Sophia Baddeley, who though she performed publicly at Vauxhall, circulated in elite and fashionable circles.

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).