Wishing You an Utterly Charming Time
Christmas Card
1881 (made)
1881 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
"Object Type
This card is one of a series of prize-winning greetings cards printed by colour lithography.
Time
The set of cards of which this card is a part parodied the Aesthetic Movement, including its followers' style of dress and particular love of lilies and oriental objects. The printers, Hildesheimer and Faulkner, described the series in 1882, 'A. Ludovici contributes some clever satirical sketches of Esthetes, then in the time of Patience", the favourite butts for mild ridicule'. 'Patience' here refers to the Gilbert and Sullivan comic-opera whose lyrics included a description of an aesthetic young man:
'A Japanese young man
A blue and white young man
Francesca di Rimini miminy piminy
Je-ne-sais-quoi young man!
A pallid and thin young man
A haggard and lank young man
A greenery-yallery Grosvenor Gallery
Foot-in-the-grave young man!'
The card's title compares to a poem published by the magazine Punch in the previous year (1881) which ended with a reference to Oscar Wilde:
'And many a maiden will mutter
When Oscar Looms large on her sight
He's quite too consummately utter
As well as too utterly quite'.
Materials & Making
Greetings cards began to be first printed by colour lithography in the 1860s. Until this point the cards were generally handmade. With the advent of steam-powered presses and other technological improvements it was possible to mass-produce comparatively cheap colour-printed images for the first time.
This card is one of a series of prize-winning greetings cards printed by colour lithography.
Time
The set of cards of which this card is a part parodied the Aesthetic Movement, including its followers' style of dress and particular love of lilies and oriental objects. The printers, Hildesheimer and Faulkner, described the series in 1882, 'A. Ludovici contributes some clever satirical sketches of Esthetes, then in the time of Patience", the favourite butts for mild ridicule'. 'Patience' here refers to the Gilbert and Sullivan comic-opera whose lyrics included a description of an aesthetic young man:
'A Japanese young man
A blue and white young man
Francesca di Rimini miminy piminy
Je-ne-sais-quoi young man!
A pallid and thin young man
A haggard and lank young man
A greenery-yallery Grosvenor Gallery
Foot-in-the-grave young man!'
The card's title compares to a poem published by the magazine Punch in the previous year (1881) which ended with a reference to Oscar Wilde:
'And many a maiden will mutter
When Oscar Looms large on her sight
He's quite too consummately utter
As well as too utterly quite'.
Materials & Making
Greetings cards began to be first printed by colour lithography in the 1860s. Until this point the cards were generally handmade. With the advent of steam-powered presses and other technological improvements it was possible to mass-produce comparatively cheap colour-printed images for the first time.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Titles |
|
| Materials and techniques | Colour lithograph on card |
| Brief description | Albert Ludovici. A slouched man with lilies. One of four cards from the "Quite too-too!" set, published by Hildesheimer & Faulkner, London, 1881. |
| Physical description | Satirical card showing an aesthete in artistic dress. A man, lounging at a table admiring lilies in a vase. A Japanese fan is mounted on the wall behind him. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Gallery label | British Galleries:
GREETINGS CARDS caricaturing the Aesthetic style Inexpensive printed cards with Aesthetic themes like these show how widely recognised the movement had become by the 1880s. In one, the title and the pose of the young man ridicule the intensity of emotions associated with such individuals as Oscar Wilde. In the other, the importance of art for its own sake is made fun of with the woman's intense interest in an everyday object, a teapot. Her fashionable clothing shows the influence of classical dress.(27/03/2003) |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Guy Tristram Little |
| Object history | Designed by Albert Ludovici, II (born in Prague, 1852, died in 1932); printed and published by Hildesheimer & Faulkner, London |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | "Object Type This card is one of a series of prize-winning greetings cards printed by colour lithography. Time The set of cards of which this card is a part parodied the Aesthetic Movement, including its followers' style of dress and particular love of lilies and oriental objects. The printers, Hildesheimer and Faulkner, described the series in 1882, 'A. Ludovici contributes some clever satirical sketches of Esthetes, then in the time of Patience", the favourite butts for mild ridicule'. 'Patience' here refers to the Gilbert and Sullivan comic-opera whose lyrics included a description of an aesthetic young man: 'A Japanese young man A blue and white young man Francesca di Rimini miminy piminy Je-ne-sais-quoi young man! A pallid and thin young man A haggard and lank young man A greenery-yallery Grosvenor Gallery Foot-in-the-grave young man!' The card's title compares to a poem published by the magazine Punch in the previous year (1881) which ended with a reference to Oscar Wilde: 'And many a maiden will mutter When Oscar Looms large on her sight He's quite too consummately utter As well as too utterly quite'. Materials & Making Greetings cards began to be first printed by colour lithography in the 1860s. Until this point the cards were generally handmade. With the advent of steam-powered presses and other technological improvements it was possible to mass-produce comparatively cheap colour-printed images for the first time. |
| Bibliographic reference | Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints and Drawings and Department of Paintings Accessions 1953 London: HMSO, 1963 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.2413-1953 |
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| Record created | March 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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