George Moutard Woodward

Two frieze-like strips mounted in an album contain seven different vignettes that humorously illustrate the tensions of married life. Each couple shows a different marital issue, arranged in a rough sequence from the beginning of marriage, to childbearing, to outright conflict. Swiftly drawn in brush and watercolor, these drawings are accompanied by inscribed captions that present dialogue or quote literary texts for ironic contrast. A prolific caricaturist, George Moutard Woodward drafted these strips as studies for a satirical print titled the Symptoms of Matrimony, published in London in 1796.