Unknown Maker, English

A Macaroni Dressing Room offers a window into the intimate world of the Macaroni, or the fashionable mid-18th-century Englishman who dressed and spoke in an affected manner. Oxford Magazine reported in 1770, "There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up amongst us. It is called Macaroni."

From 1760 to 1800, hundreds of humorous prints, also known as drolls, were produced in London. The engravers and print sellers Mary & Matthew Darly became known as the "Macaroni Print-Shop" because of their merchandise. In this print, a fashionable printed-cotton dressing gown, or banyan, is worn by the sitter, who is having his wig powdered. The pictures on the wall show such topics as "Rotten Row Macaroni" and "Morning Devotion." A banyan worn by the Prince of Wales faces this print.