Our Drawing-room Pets–with "Kangaroo Jim, the Champion Australian boomerang-thrower," for "Punch," July 2, 1887

George Du Maurier

1887 · Pen and brown ink · Drawings and Prints

Du Maurier pokes fun at London society's fascination with the exotic by showing fashionable young women fawning over a burly Australian street performer as their perplexed male companions look on. The celebrity sprawls in a throne-like chair and is fanned by ladies who offer him tea. Text below reveals details of "Kangaroo Jim's" rough early life in Fiji. The image was published in "Punch" on July 2, 1887 and responds to current issues such as Darwinism. The artist had a significant impact on British culture from the 1860s through the 1890s as a talented illustrator, popular cartoonist, and author of the novel "Trilby" (1894).

Artist

George Du Maurier

Date

1887

Medium

Pen and brown ink

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Roberta J.M. Olson and Alexander B.V. Johnson, 2017