The Return from the Continent, or the Family Puzzled
This print satirizes French fashion by showing a stout middle class Englishman returned from Paris. As a seated lady pours tea, she misses the cup and remarks on the transformed appearance of her husband, "Lord, my dear! the French folks have quite transmogrify'd you. What, is that a French collar? why, it sticks out like two large horns; and they've stuck a sugar-loaf on your head—and what have they been doing with your small cloaths? and where's your wig, my dear? He answers, "O! all a mode! all a mode!" Their daughter says, 'All a mode! all a mode! Why, Papa, you seem to have forgot all your English. You'll have all the customers take you for a French Mounseer." A clipped poodle stands at left and the ladies wear dresses with huge gigot sleeves and bold prints representing English fashion.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Return from the Continent, or the Family Puzzled
- Artist: John Phillips (British, active 1825–31)
- Publisher: Thomas McLean (British, 1788–1875)
- Date: 1835
- Medium: Etching
- Dimensions: Plate: 9 3/4 × 13 7/8 in. (24.8 × 35.2 cm)
Sheet: 10 13/16 × 15 1/2 in. (27.5 × 39.4 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014
- Object Number: 2014.757.5(5)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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