Capt.n Cut-Lass

Date1771

Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)

Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)

Attributed to M. Darly

OriginEngland, London

MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 8 5/8 × 5 5/8in. (21.9 × 14.3cm) Other (Plate): 6 7/16 × 4 1/4in. (16.4 × 10.8cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,27

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "1"
Lower margin reads: "CAPT.N CUT-LASS./ Pubd. by MDarly N.o 39 Strand Nov.r 18.th 1771 Accor.g to Act"
Label TextThe print is plate 1 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Caricatures Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies and Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature satirizes a man in military dress styled as a macaroni. He wears an enormous cutlass with a yellow handle and tip. In his right hand is a cane which rests on his right shoulder; his left hand is on his hip. Dress: bright blue military coat with red trim, and an orange vest, also white knee breeches. He wears a hat with a cockade and his hair is in a large looped club.

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