"Monstrosities" of 1799, Scene, Kensington Gardens
Since at least the 1740's with prints by Louis-Philippe Boitard like Taste a la Mode 1745 (1745) and theThe Beau Monde in St James's Park (c.1749-50), one of the staples of graphic satire has been the portrayal of the latest absurdities of men's and women's fashion as they are flaunted by the well-to-do in public places like the Pantheon or Ranelagh. Gillray's Monstrosities of 1799 works well within that tradition.
[July 25, 1799]
© Trustees of the British Museum
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Set in fashionable Kensington Gardens, Monstrosities satirizes several of the latest clothing trends among both women and men. The women are wearing the high-waisted, clinging, semi-transparent,and sometimes low cut dresses which had migrated from France to England with the rise of the Directorate and the influence of women associated with les merveilleuses like Madame Tallien and Juliette Récamier. To protect themsleves from the sun, one of them carries the latest parasol and others wear the new Grecian shaped hats made of pipe straw and gimp with an exaggerated brim.
Even more caricatured, the ogling man on the right is shown with the high neck cloth Gillray had satirized in Neck or Nothing (1792), exaggerated Hessian boots with tassels, and the padded shoulders and puffy sleeves of the popular Jean de Brey style coat (seen less exaggerated in a later Gillray print, All Bond-Street Trembled As He Strode (1802).
The print is almost certainly based on one or more amateur models. The prominent male figure with his curved walking stick, for instance, is clearly derived from an untitled watercolour in the British Museum shown below.
[1799]
© Trustees of the British Museum
Photo by Jim Sherry
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on 'Monstrosities' of 1799, Scene, Kensington Gardens.
- "Jean Debry," Wikipedia
- "Incroyables and merveilleuses," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #452
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times p. 265
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