Album of Caricatures 1740 - 1780

Curator: Welcome. Before us is an "Album of Caricatures," dating from around 1740 to 1780. It consists of drawings and prints on paper, utilizing coloured pencils and the entire album can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It feels rather unassuming at first glance. The faded brown cover, aged paper edges… It gives an immediate sense of intimacy, like a cherished personal belonging from a bygone era. Curator: Absolutely. Albums like this provide a lens into 18th-century social commentary and humour, often acting as a satirical voice for the anxieties and absurdities of the time. Editor: Caricatures are, in essence, symbols. By exaggerating features and attributes, they condense complex personalities or social types into instantly recognizable visual tropes, each detail imbued with significance for the viewer. Curator: They also gave the artist a degree of agency in the face of court power that was ever present. Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully, after all, was quite famous, so there would've been very high profile viewers that he could impress, and in so doing affect perceptions of people. Editor: And isn't the 'GW' stamped onto the cover likely to be some further symbol relating to either the artist or commissioner of the works within? These repeated motifs served not just as aesthetic details, but as cultural codes through the decades. Curator: Exactly. Understanding the political and social climate during this period will unlock greater meanings behind the caricatures presented, but more than that, who was intended as the audience. Editor: Looking at this album sparks so many questions about what endures. The album format holds these potent little symbols intact. Curator: Precisely, and it challenges us to reflect on power dynamics then, and consider whose stories are elevated now, and who the art world currently renders laughable.