The Flower Garden thumbnail 1
Not on display

The Flower Garden

Print
1777 (published)
Artist/Maker
Darly, Matthias (publisher)
Place of origin
London (published)

Engraving of a woman in profile, with a towering mass of hair surmounted by a flower garden with a temple to Mercury with a gardener raking the gravel paths.
Signed with monogram. Lettered with title and 'Pub by MDarly May 1:1777. where may be had bath Caricatures'. Numbered '15 V.2'.

Object details

Categories
Hair and Hairstyles
Prints
Satire
Caricatures & Cartoons
Womenswear
Fashion
Object type
Print
TitleThe Flower Garden (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
engraving
Printing Ink
Engraving
Brief description
Matthew Darly, 'The Flower Garden', caricature of women's wigs, 1777
Physical description
Engraving of a woman in profile, with a towering mass of hair surmounted by a flower garden with a temple to Mercury with a gardener raking the gravel paths.
Signed with monogram. Lettered with title and 'Pub by MDarly May 1:1777. where may be had bath Caricatures'. Numbered '15 V.2'.
Dimensions
  • Taken from ' victoria & albert museum department of prints and drawings and department of paintings accessions 1966' published by hmso 1967 length: 35.2cm
  • Taken from ' victoria & albert museum department of prints and drawings and department of paintings accessions 1966' published by hmso 1967 width: 24.7cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'MD' (Signed with monogram)
  • 'The Flower Garden' (Lettered with title)
  • 'Pub by MDarly May 1:1777. where may be had Bath Caricatures.
  • '15 V.2 (Numbered)
Gallery label
Matthew Darly (worked 1750–78)
‘The Flower Garden’, from the series ‘Darly’s Comic Prints of Character, Caricatures, Macaronies etc’
London, 1777
Darly’s caricature of a woman’s coiffure lampoons the 1770s vogue for increasingly elaborate hairstyles. ‘The Flower Garden’, with its temple to Mercury and labouring gardener, may seem exaggerated, but in Paris the duchesse de Lauzun wore a wig with a whole landscape in relief, complete with ducks, a windmill and a miller leading his donkey.
Etching
Published by Matthew Darly
Museum no. E.2293-1966
Subjects depicted
Woman
Garden
Flowers
Temple
Gardener
Bibliographic reference
Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1966 pub. HMSO 1967
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.2293-1966

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O694060/the-flower-garden-print-darly-matthias/
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