Thursday, August 21, 2014

A Shower, or Any Port in a Storm, 1786


A Shower, or Any Port in a Storm, S.W. Fores, 1786, British Museum.

A popular subject of satirical artwork in the eighteenth century was women's fashion. I've never touched on it in this blog, as we deal specifically with a profession that was exclusively male at the time. Here, however, we find Jack Tar taking shelter under the humorously wide hat of a lady. Joining him is an old woman, an officer (possibly of the Royal Artillery), a hen and her chicks, and some large globular object that I can't identify.


Our yawning mariner wears a blue jacket that ends at the top of the thigh with a black neckcloth and trousers with narrow blue vertical stripes, and a round hat with an upturned brim.

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