{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O198444"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O198444/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CT3919/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2009CT3919/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2009CT3919","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2009CT2254","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019LH5742","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O198444/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O198444","accessionNumber":"E.146-2009","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Frustrated Social Ambition: Collapse of Postlethwaite, Maudle and Mrs Cimabue Brown","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"George Du Maurier has long been considered one of the finest of the talented draughtsmen working for the comic newspaper <i>Punch</i>in the late 19th century. An exact contemporary of William Morris and fellow-student with James McNeill Whistler in Paris, Du Maurier became the keenest critic of the Pre-Raphaelite / Aesthetic cult whilst remaining friends with many members of the circle. \r\n\r\nAt the height of public interest in the Aesthetic Movement, between the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery in London at the end of the 1870s and Oscar Wilde's lecture tour of 1882, <i>Punch</i>ran a brilliant series of caricatures by Du Maurier satirising the manners and poses of the Aesthetes. He invented a cast of characters centred on Mrs Cimabue Brown, an ambitious hostess with 'artistic' tastes, Maudle, a rising painter, and the soulful poet Jellaby Postlethwaite, closely modelled on Wilde. Mrs Brown collects Aesthetes as others collect paintings and Du Maurier makes fun of both her social pretensions and her gullible enthusiasm for fashionable crazes such as that for lilies and oriental blue and white china. \r\n\r\nThis is the last drawing in the series. In the witty, almost 'post-modern' caption, Du Maurier finally dispatches his narcissistic trinity: 'Collapse of Postlethwaite, Maudle, and Mrs Cimabue Brown, on reading in a widely circulated contemporary journal that they only exist in Mr Punch's vivid imagination. They had fondly flattered themselves that universal fame was theirs at last'.","physicalDescription":"Pen and brown ink drawing, made as an illustration for Punch, showing three standing figures in an interior. On the left is a woman wearing a long dress with large puffed sleeves. She stands in an attitude of sorrow, head bowed and hands clasped in front of her. On the right two men embrace sorrowfully. The man on the far right clutches a newspaper in his hand.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Du Maurier, George Louis Palmella Busson","id":"A24255"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pen","id":"x30618"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and brown ink","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"}],"styles":[{"text":"British","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2009CT3919","2009CT2254","2019LH5742"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH (VA)","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"PD","shelf":"61","box":"A"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1881","earliest":"1881-01-01","latest":"1881-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased, 2009","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"16","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"13.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"254","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"357","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Frustrated social ambition. / Collapse of Postlethwaite, Maudle & Mrs Cimabue / Brown on reading in a contemporary journal that / they only exist in Mr Punch's vivid imagination. / They had fondly flattered themselves that universal fame was / theirs at last.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscription on reverse"}],"objectHistory":"J.S. Maas & Co., London, where bought by Sir David Scott, 12th December 1968; Purchased from Sotheby's (Scott sale) 19th November 2008, lot 143.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Drawing, pen and ink, by George Du Maurier, 'Frustrated Social Ambition; collapse of Postlethwaite, Maudle and Mrs Cimabue Brown', London, 1881.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"<i>High art and homely scenes: an exhibition of Victorian paintings, water-colours and drawings at Mass Gallery</i>, London, Mass Gallery, 1969","id":"AUTH356793"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Postlethwaite, Jellaby","id":"N8160"},{"text":"Maudle","id":"N8161"},{"text":"Mrs Cimabue Brown","id":"N8162"},{"text":"Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills","id":"N2417"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"lilies","id":"x35226"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["Punch","Aesthetic Movement"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.146-2009"],"accessionNumberNum":"146","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2009,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-13","recordCreationDate":"2009-03-06","availableToBook":false}}