The Breadth of Fashion, 5th Avenue – Life in New York

1857–71

Not on view

This fashion satire makes fun of exaggerated city fashions, showing a gentleman wearing a narrow coat with wide sleeves amused by a woman with a huge hoop skirt walking along the pavement. Three smaller figures at right have wide garments echoing those of the woman. A boy wears a triangular shaped coat, a girl has a wide short skirt over pantalettes with extended lace trim, and a small man smoking a cigar has a coat with a wide hem over slim striped trousers. The disparity in the scale of these three figures is not explained. A ballerina doll wearing a wide tutu stands in the window of the house behind the figures.

Artwork Details

Title: The Breadth of Fashion, 5th Avenue – Life in New York
Artist: After Thomas B. Worth (American, New York 1834–1917 Staten Island, New York)
Publisher: Currier & Ives (American, active New York, 1857–1907)
Date: 1857–71
Medium: Hand-colored lithograph
Dimensions: Image: 9 1/16 × 10 3/16 in. (23 × 25.8 cm)
Sheet: 12 5/8 × 17 1/16 in. (32 × 43.3 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Bequest of Adele S. Colgate, 1962
Object Number: 63.550.357
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By Thomas B. Worth

By Currier & Ives

In the same medium

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Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, Lithograph printed in four colors; three sheets of wove paper — Moulin Rouge: La Goulue
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1891

Cuffee Dancing for Eels – Catharine Market (Life in New York), Thomas B. Worth American, Hand-colored lithograph — Cuffee Dancing for Eels – Catharine Market (Life in New York)
Thomas B. Worth
Publisher Currier & Ives
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