Habit of a Citizen's Wife of Frascati in 1768

by Thomas Jefferys

This particular print, drawn in 1768 by Thomas Jefferys, gives a unique insight into the social structures of Frascati, Italy, in the mid-18th century. Being part of the ethnographic study on costumes in Europe, the "Citizen’s Wife" depicts the fusion of the traditional and "middle class" ideas characteristic of the Enlightenment age.

The era when Grand Tourists thronged the Alban hills for their clean air and antiquities is also known for the attention that was paid to the inhabitants of those territories. Here we have one of the prints made by Jefferys featuring a bourgeois woman from Frascati, separate from her noble Roman relatives and simple peasants.