Modern Oddities, by P. Pry Esq., Plate 1st

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Medium

Hand-colored etching

Dimensions

Plate: 10 1/8 × 14 5/16 in. (25.7 × 36.4 cm) Sheet: 11 in. × 16 1/4 in. (28 × 41.3 cm)

Classification

Prints

Department

Drawings and Prints

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

Gift of Jill Spalding, 2022

Accession Number

2022.309.24

Tags

FashionSatireWomen

About this artwork

This hand-colored etching satirizes the exaggerated women's fashions of late 1820s Britain. Published on June 30, 1829, by Thomas McLean, the print depicts a woman in an enormously puffed-sleeve dress that epitomizes the period's departure from Neoclassical simplicity. William Heath, working under the pseudonym 'Paul Pry,' created this caricature as part of his 'Modern Oddities' series. The title references Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (Act 4, Scene 3, line 143), where Petruchio critici...

About the Artist

Thomas McLean|William Heath ('Paul Pry')|William Shakespeare (British|British) · 1800 |1788 1828 |1875

British, Isleworth ca. 1800–1828 London|British, 1788–1875

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