The Return from the Continent, or the Family Puzzled

John Phillips British
Publisher Thomas McLean British

Not on view

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.

The Return from the Continent, or the Family Puzzled, John Phillips (British, active 1825–31), Etching

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