Monstrosities of 1822 – Part 5

Artist George Cruikshank (British, 1792–1878)

Publisherpublished by G. Humphrey (British, 1783–1831)

DateOctober 19, 1822

Mediumetching with watercolor on cream wove paper

Dimensionsplate: 25.9 x 37.4 cm (10 3/16 x 14 3/4 in.)
sheet: 29.9 x 41.3 cm (11 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineGift of Samuel B. Woodward

Terms

Object number1934.123

Label TextThe work of Cruikshank represents the culmination of a long British tradition of satirical prints, which enjoyed popularity from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. As the leading political and social caricaturist of his day, he criticized myriad aspects of London life at all levels of society. Cruikshank delighted in poking fun at contemporary fashions, and in his Monstrosities- a series of nine prints executed between 1816 and 1827- he lambasted the sartorial absurdities that characterized the Regency, the heyday of dandies like Beau Brummel. This etching shows a promenade of dandified strutters thronging beneath the statue of a resplendent male nude on a pedestal. The Worcester Art Museum's collection of works by Cruikshank is particularly rich, containing over one thousand prints and even more illustrated books. All were given to the Museum in 1934 by Dr. Samuel B. Woodward.

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