Laceing [sic] a Dandy

Anonymous, British, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dandies needed help to achieve the silhouette that contemporary fashion demanded around 1820. A wasp waist was created by means of tightly laced stays, while padding produced broad shoulders and thighs. This dandy instructs two servants to pull as hard as they can on his corset strings. The dress and accent of the man at right, as well as the comb stuck in his hair, identify him as a French hairdresser, who jeeringly refers to his master’s "John Bull Belly." British humor at this period stereotyped Frenchmen as thin and underfed while contrasting them with over-nourished Britons. This particular embodiment of British manhood is presented as an exemplar of modern ridiculousness.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.