A Pantheon No. Rep.

Date1772

Maker M. Darly

Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)

Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)

OriginEngland, London

MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 8 5/8 × 5 9/16in. (21.9 × 14.1cm) Other: 7 1/4 × 5in. (18.4 × 12.7cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,42

DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "16"
Lower margin reads: "A PANTHEON NO. REP. / Pub by MDarly Strand March 3.d 1772 according to Act."
Label TextThe print is plate 16 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature depicts a woman standing in profile holding a ticket inscribed: "PANTHEON admit Lady No. Rep." The term "Rep," thought to be short for Reprobate or an abbreviation of Reputation, was used to describe a person of questionable character or background.

It is thought to be a representation of Sophia Baddeley (1745-1786) who was a celebrated actress and singer who performed at Drury Lane theater and joined David Garrick's theatre company in 1769. She separated from her husband, Robert Baddeley, also an actor, in 1770 and became a courtesan to support her extravagant lifestyle. She was considered 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. (1)

The ticket she holds refers to coveted subscription tickets that granted entry to the Pantheon, a fashionable London social club which raised controversy over its admittance structure when it opened in January 1772. Unlike most private clubs, which were exclusive by gender, social standing, background, political affiliation, the Pantheon sold tickets through subscription that then had to be vetted by a fashionable noblewoman who had to endorse a person's subscription card. It was feared that this structure would dissolve social boundaries leading to the mixing of genders, ranks, political affiliations, and classes through the admittance of people who transverse these boundaries.

During the opening week of the Pantheon, those fears came to a head. Baddely's lover George Hangar made a public spectacle demanding Proprietors defend their statements that they woud not permit "women of the town" by proving that Baddeley was unworthy. Her status and the publicity the event brought, only served to add to her celebrity and created interest in the Pantheon. Women like Baddeley caused discomfort because they blurred the line between public and private, between respectable and disreputable, just like the Pantheon whose admittance model failed to distinguish between the two.

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 macaroni’s, 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.

1) See Gillian Russell, "The Peeresses and the Prostitutes: The Founding of the London Pantheon, 1772," Ninteenth Century Contests, 27:1, 11-30.