Waist and Extravagance
Heath's satire centers on a woman wearing a pink, tightly corseted gown with a flounced skirt elaborately decorated with blue ribbons echoing birds, and with three-layered puffed. The ensemble is topped with a huge hat whose huge brim is decorated below and above, and enhanced with falling ribbons. The title suggests that current fashions have reached an extreme point of development. Like many of Heath's prints from this period, it is signed with a small top-hatted dandy holding an umbrella–Paul Pry, a nosy character from a play.
Artwork Details
- Title: Waist and Extravagance
- Artist: William Heath ('Paul Pry') (British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead)
- Publisher: Thomas McLean (British, 1788–1875)
- Date: March 28, 1829
- Medium: Hand-colored etching
- Dimensions: Plate: 14 3/16 × 10 3/8 in. (36 × 26.4 cm)
Sheet: 17 1/16 × 11 9/16 in. (43.4 × 29.4 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Jill Spalding, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.309.28
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
More Artwork
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William Heath ('Paul Pry')
S. Gans
1830
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1827–29
Multiple artists/makers
1827–29
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1828–29
William Heath ('Paul Pry')
Thomas McLean
1828
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