The Mungo Macaroni (Julius Soubise)

Date1772

Publisher M. Darly

Publisher Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Publisher Matthew Darly ca. 1720 - 1780

OriginEngland, London

MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper with hand coloring

DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)
Other (Plate): 7 × 4 3/4in. (17.8 × 12.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,89

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "14"
Lower margin reads: "A MUNGO MACARONI./ Publish'd according to Act, by M Darly, 39 Strand, Sept.r. 10. 1772."Label TextThe print is plate 14 from volume IV of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "VOL. IV. of Macaronies, Characters, Caricatures." Scholars believe that this caricature represents Julius Soubise (1754-1798) who was born enslaved in St. Kitts, and taken to England as a present to Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry who manumitted him. The Duchess treated him as a member of her family and supported his education and lifestyle as he rose to social prominence, circulating in London's fashionable circles. Here he is satirized in the fashion of the macaroni-type and labelled using the name "Mungo" which was an epithet often aimed at the enslaved in literature and drama who were viewed as pets for the elite.

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)