Boston Public LibraryJames Gillray (1756-1815). Prints and Drawings / English Caricature and Political Satire, 18th and 19th Centuries / British Artists
Advantages of wearing muslin dresses!
Item Information
- Title:
- Advantages of wearing muslin dresses!
- Description:
-
After the title, "dedicated to the serious attention of the Fashionable Ladies of Great Britain." An enormously fat lady flings up arms, legs, and tea-cup in terror, as her flimsy gown catches fire from a red-hot poker falling from the grate (left). She, a stiff military officer, and a young woman sit at a round tea-table. The man sits paralyzed, alarmed and helpless, spilling his tea. The girl has added to the calamity by knocking over the tea-table so that urn and tea-pot spill their scalding contents, and crockery slides towards the floor. A loutish footman enters (right) but has stopped dead, dropping a dish of muffins. A frightened cat scampers from the hearth-rug. Over the chimney-piece is a picture of Vesuvius in eruption. The woman is a monstrous creature with bare arms and elaborately dressed hair (or wig), a patterned carpet completes the design (BM). / Muslin dresses had become very fashionable at the period when this caricature was published, and several disastrous results of accidental ignition gave to this print a peculiar air of truthfulness. It may be that those interested in the print trade encouraged the production of what was likely to remove prestige from its rival (Wright/Evans).
- Artist:
- Gillray, James, 1756-1815
- Date:
-
February 15, 1802
- Format:
-
Prints
- Genre:
-
Etchings
Caricatures
Satires (Visual works)
- Location:
-
Boston Public Library
Arts Department - Collection (local):
-
James Gillray (1756-1815). Prints and Drawings
- Subjects:
-
Military officers
Dresses
Eating & drinking
Fires
Accidents
- Extent:
- 1 print : hand-colored etching ; sheet 23 x 32 cm
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/2z111k65r
- Terms of Use:
-
No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
- Publisher:
-
London :
Published by John Miller, Bridge Street & W. Blackwood, Edinburgh
- Language:
-
English
- Notes:
-
Title from item.
BM Satires 9933; Wright/Evans 513
Additional information accompanying item: From the 1824 Gillray collection of copies, etched and published by John Miller and W. Blackwood.
- Notes (acquisition):
-
Gift; Louis Black; December 1953
- Notes (date):
-
Date from Wright/Evans.
Reproduction. Date indicated is Gillray's original publication date.
- Notes (citation):
-
Stephens, Frederic George, George, Mary Dorothy. "Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum." British Museum Press, 1870, London.
Wright, Thomas, R. H. Evans. "Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures of James Gillray." Benjamin Blom, 1968, New York.
- Identifier:
-
18_17_000044
- Barcode:
-
36666004443186
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