Jerry in training for a “Swell”
Description:
In this print, Corinthian Tom’s tailor, Mr. Primefit, has come to Corinthian House to fit Jerry Hawthorn for a new suit. Jerry stands in the center, his back to the viewer, while Mr. Primefit measures his back with tape. Jerry wears a bottle green coat, fawn breeches, and a white shirt and stockings, while the tailor wears high-waisted, tight-fitting trousers, pale blue, and a maroon coat, with a bright yellow handkerchief poking out of his back pocket. Mr. Primefit is apparently taking longer than usual because he is distracted by the various paintings that have been hung in the room since his last visit. Tom lounges on a couch on the left wearing baggier white trousers, a smoking jacket with a white and pale blue pattern, and an elaborate pink patterned cravat. The figures are in a fine but casual room, hung with sporting pictures of dogs, race horses, boxing, shooting, hunting, and cock fighting. In addition to the couch there are a couple of chairs, a semicircular commode, and a table draped with a green baize cloth. Boxing gloves and a book of "Sporting Anecdotes" are strewn about the room, together with tools of the tailor’s trade: two rolls of patterns, a top hat and hat box, and tall boots. On the table are some papers, an inkstand, a quill pen, and another top hat, while the mantel of the fireplace behind the table is graced by a large, German pipe.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
Pierce Egan's Life in London; or, The day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and sprees through the metropolis . . . , illustrated by George and Robert Cruikshank (London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1821)
Accession Number:
CA 8931
Height (in centimeters):
14
Width (in centimeters):
23
Printing Context
This image served as one of George and Robert Cruikshank's illustrations for Pierce Egan's 1821 Life in London, as well as for subsequent editions; the illustration faces page 146.Associated Events
The FittingAssociated Places
The Conversation RoomSubject
In this print, Corinthian Tom’s tailor, Mr. Primefit, has come to Corinthian House to fit Jerry Hawthorn for a new suit. Mr. Primefit is apparently taking longer than usual because he is distracted by the various paintings that have been hung in the room since his last visit. Tom lounges on a couch, smiling to himself and contrasting “rustic” Jerry’s broad-shouldered physique with the thinner frames of the fashionable dandies that inhabit London’s West End. It is this observation that the viewer is also invited to make, as the piece serves to draw a gendered distinction between the effeminate taylor and the country gentleman.Significance
This image captures how fashion was perceived as an artistic endeavor in the Romantic period, primarily by representing the tailor, a producer of male fashion, as a creative professional. Furthermore, not only does the text explicitly describe him as an artist, but the image further portrays Mr. Primefit as a connoisseur of fine art: he is visibly distracted by the paintings on the wall during Jerry's fitting, and so his love of fine art appears to take precedence over his business. The print also emphasizes the role of fashion as a tool for producing a certain “look,” in this case the “look of a gentlemen,” a visual creation that is specifically classed and gendered as an elite masculine prerogative (Egan 146). Fashion not only creates a costume, however: it can also refashion the inner man. Once Jerry receives the “swell suit,” he discards his country clothes or “rustic habits” and is very pleased with his London wardrobe, even though he “scarcely knew himself, as his eyes ran over the mirror which reflected the elegant metamorphose he had undergone” (Egan 148). Jerry’s gaze in the mirror is the last of a series of homoerotic inspections enabled by the process of clothes fitting. Jerry is subjected to the objectifying male gaze of Mr. Primefit, Corinthian Tom, and himself; as a result, he is viewed as a tasteful object—a fashionable gentleman, a swell—rather analogous to the paintings that the men also view on the walls.Bibliography
Barrell, John. The Birth of Pandora and the Division of Knowledge. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1992. 41-61. Print. New Cultural Studies Series.Long Title
Egan, Pierce, 1772-1849. Life in London: or, The day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom: Accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their rambles and sprees through the metropolis / By Pierce Egan; Embellished with thirty-six scenes from real life . . . and . . . numerous original designs on wood. London: Printed for Sherwood, Jones, 1823. Special Collections (Memorial Library) CA 8931Featured in Exhibit:
Delineator:
Image Date:
31 August 1820
Publisher:
Neeley Sherwood