Unidentified Artist - Dion Boucicault - c. 1869 - T-Shirt

This pencil and coloured wash caricature shows the playwright Dion Boucicault in exaggerated profile, dressed as a woman in a gown that doubles as a stage joke.

Visual Elements & Composition

The figure faces right and fills most of the sheet, with an oversized head, a thin moustache, and dark hair piled into a high bun under a feathered hat with a pearl ornament. A pale yellow gown with pink trim and a wide sash dominates the lower half, its hem marked by a zigzag band and the word FORMOSA in capitals. One hand holds a small bag labelled 1000. The drawing sits on tan paper, with a cast shadow beneath the feet. The heading Sem's Pantheon, Authors, Actors runs across the top, and the caption Dion Boucicault appears lower left.

Meaning & Symbolism

The joke rests on the costume. Formosa; or, The Railroad to Ruin was a melodrama by Boucicault first staged in 1869, so the gown becomes a pun on one of his productions. The money bag points to the commercial success of his popular plays, and the feminine dress and elaborate hairstyle exaggerate his theatrical persona. Boucicault (1820-1890) was an Irish-born dramatist and actor known for spectacle and sensation, with melodramas such as The Colleen Bawn and The Octoroon. The sheet bears the monogram of the caricaturist Sem, the pen name of Georges Goursat (1863-1934), whose celebrity portraits were issued in series under the title Pantheon.

Wearing the Caricature

A caricature like this works by reducing a public figure to a few emblems a viewer can read at a glance. On a tee, those emblems sit across the chest, so the profile, the gown, and the money bag read clearly from a few steps away, and the caption and monogram reward a closer look as the shirt moves with the wearer.