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Print 1987-715,3
The French Marrow-Bone Singer
Print 1987-715,3

The French Marrow-Bone Singer

Date1771
Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)
Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)
Maker M. Darly
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 × 5 1/4in. (20.3 × 13.3cm) Other (Plate): 6 × 4 1/8in. (15.2 × 10.5cm)
Credit LineGift funds from Mr. & Mrs. William Kimball.
Object number1987-715,3
DescriptionUpper margin reads: "V.1/ 16"
Lower margin reads: "THE FRENCH MAROW-BONE SINGER./ Pub.d as the act Directs Act 1:.st 1771 by MDarly 39 Strand."
Label TextThe print is plate 16 from volume I of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." This caricature depicts one of the famous French singers that performed at Marylebone (often called Marrowbone) Gardens in London depicted in the stock-character of a shabbily dressed Frenchman in threadbare finery. He's depicted with the fashion of the macaroni, particularly his sword and huge toupee with curls combed back, hair has been made into a queue at first and then is clubbed. He also wears a short green jacket with large laced cuffs, probably matching waistcoat. He has a large out-of-style cravat around his neck that appears to be edged on the end with fringe and patched stockings.

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 1-3.