Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Le retour de Paris, or, The neice presented to her relations by her French governess / E.H.L del. ; etched by G. Cruikshank.

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George Cruikshank
1792-1878

Le retour de Paris, or, The neice presented to her relations by her French governess / E.H.L del. ; etched by G. Cruikshank.

Published

London : Pubd by H Humphrey St James's St January 3d 1817, 1817 January 3.

hand colored etching
image: 236 x 374 mm; sheet: 278 x 383 mm
Peel 1995
Notes
Lettered with title, text within image, artist's name and publication line "E H L del 1816 / Etched by G Cruikshank / Pubd by H Humphrey St James's St January 3d 1817."
Library's copy is trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

An older couple (left), plainly dressed in a very old-fashioned manner, watch with shocked dismay an over-dressed Frenchwoman who takes by the wrist an equally over-dressed girl, making her curtsey, as she does herself. Their dresses are high-waisted, flounced, and vandyked, with neck-ruffles and short puffed sleeves. Both wear huge bonnets with erect cylindrical crowns, grotesquely trimmed, long gloves, each with a reticule dangling from the arm. A French servant in livery (right) stands chapeau-bras, a band-box slung from his arm, shrugging his shoulders to express horrified surprise. A plainly dressed young girl standing behind her aunt grins in astonishment at the visitors. A dog and cat register hostility towards a cringing lap-dog shaved in the French manner, which is attached to the servant with a string. The room is panelled and carpeted, with one side-table, and is probably a hall or ante-room in a country house. A dialogue is etched below the design. The young girl: "Well-a-day Aunt! what Monstrosities are these?" The uncle: "In the name of all that's Christian speak & say what you are, & where you come from, you Hottenpots [sic]--." The governess: "Madame j'ai l'honneur de vous presenter votre Neice, elle est tout-a-fait Françoise, parle notre langue à la perfection, Chante comme un Ange, danse comme Terpsichore elle même mange les Grenouilles." The niece: "Ma chere Tante Mon Oncle ma Seeur [sic], ne connoissez vous pas votre petite Emilie?" The aunt: "Aye dont talk to me of Turpuschore & Green-Owls or any of your Hocus-pocus nonsense--Speak plain English you Mountebanks do--or I'll make you answer before my Husband one of his Majesty's Justices--I will." The servant: "Oh Diable! comme je tremble quand je regarde le visage menacant de ce grand Monsieur Bull, et quand j'entend [sic] la voix barbare de cette Grenadiere je suis pret à mourir--mais je me cacherai autant que je peux derrière Madame." Cf. British Museum online catalog.

Associated names
L., E. H., designer.
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department