AFA Summer 2020

2020 Antiques & Fine Art 107 Matthew Darly (British, active 1754–1778), designer and etcher, The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady, 1776. Etching and stipple engraving. Sheet: 1711⁄16 x 10½ inches. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection (B1977.14.10990). Husband-and-wife team Matthew and Mary Darly had two successful London printshops where they specialized in producing satirical prints. The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Feathered Lady, pokes fun at the fashion of the day for flamboyantly tall hairstyles embellished with ribbons, waxed fruit, decorative objects, and especially ostrich plumes. An entire industry arose, initially in France, for the shaping, dying, and processing of feathers for personal adornment. Tall plumes from an ostrich’s tail and wings were popularized as a hair ornament in France by Marie-Antoinette in the early 1770s and adopted in England by fashion-setter Georgia Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales). The plumes were expensive and not always easy to come by and eventually necessitated widespread hunting and even farming of the birds in Africa to meet the demand. Darly’s print shows an amusingly exaggerated version of the hairstyle, interwoven with vegetables and so tall that the hairdresser must stand on a footstool to apply a plethora of plumes.  Paula Reich is the head of interpretive projects and managing editor at the Toledo Museum of Art.