Caricature and Other Comic Art in All Times and Many Lands.Parton, James
History
Caricature and Other Comic Art in All Times and Many Lands.
Parton, James
Caricature -- History
Among the few broadsides of Elizabeth's reign preserved in the British
Museum there is one which is conceived in perfect harmony with these
proverbs. It presents eight scenes, in all of which women figure
disadvantageously. There is a child-bed scene, in which the mother lies
in state, most preposterously dressed and adorned, while a dozen other
women are idling and gossiping about the room. Women are exhibited also
at the market, at the bakehouse, at the ale-house, at the river washing
clothes, at church, at the bath, at the public well; but always
chattering, gossiping, idling, unless they are fighting or flirting.
Another caricature in the same collection, dated 1620, the year of the
_Mayflower_ and Plymouth Rock, contains seven scenes illustrative of the
lines following:
"Who marieth a Wife upon a Moneday,
If she will not be good upon a Twesday,
Lett him go to y{e} wood upon a Wensday,
And cutt him a cudgell upon the Thursday,
And pay her soundly upon a Fryday;
And she mend not, y{e} divil take her a Saterday,
That he may eat his meat in peace on the Sunday."
To complete the record of man's ridicule of the sex to which he owes his
happiness, I add the pictures given in this chapter, which bring that
record down to date. They tell their own story. The innocent fun of
English Cruikshank and Leech contrasts agreeably with the subtle
depravity indicated by some of the French caricaturists, particularly by
Gavarni, who surpasses all men in the art of exaggerating the address of
the class of women who regard men in the light of prey. The point of
Gavarni's satire usually lies in the words printed underneath his
pictures, and the pictures generally consist of the two figures who
utter those words. But the expression which he contrives to impart to
his figures and faces by a few apparently careless lines is truly
wonderful, and it can scarcely be transferred to another surface. He
excels in the expression of a figure with the face turned away, the
whole effect being given by the outline of the head three-quarters
averted. There is one picture of his, given on the following page, of a
woman and her lover, he sitting in a chair reading _with his hat on_,
indicating the extreme of familiarity, she standing at the window
sewing, and keeping an eye on the pavement below. "He's coming!" she
says; "take off your hat." In the attitude of the woman there is a
mingled effect of tranquillity and vigilance that is truly remarkable.
In all the range of caricature it would be difficult to find a better
specimen of the art than this, or a worse. The reader may be curious to
see a few more of these _fourberies de femmes_, as evolved from the
brain of the dissolute Gavarni. It is almost impossible to transfer the
work of his pencil, but here are a few of his verbal elucidations:
Under a picture of a father and daughter walking arm-in-arm: "How did
you know, papa, that I loved M. Léon?" "Because you always spoke of M.
Paul."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account