Peasant of the Alps
Date1771
Publisher
Matthew Darly
(ca. 1720 - 1780)
Publisher
Mary Darly
(1760 - 1781)
Engraver
M. Darly
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)
Overall (Plate): 6 × 4in. (15.2 × 10.2cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,7
DescriptionUpper right corner: "6"Lower margin reads: "PEASANT of the ALPS./ Pub.d accord..g to Act of Parll.t June 7:.th 1771 by MDarly 39 Strand."
Label TextThe print is plate 6 from volume I of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This plate shows a tall, gaunt woman, who appears to be pregnant, in full length profile walking towards the left. She wears clothing that alludes to her French background: a skirt of varying shades of red, with a white striped apron, short blue cloak with a wide collar, and a light blue "French" cap, with pink ribbons. She wears a large cross around her neck. Her hands are enclosed in a large fur muff, a fashion accessory associated with the French during this period. She wears wooden shoes on her feet. Her hair is wispy and unkempt under the cap.
The print is plate 6 from volume I of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." The 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 1-3.
