Fashion in Art: The Second Empire and Impressionism

by Marie Simon

Between 1850 and 1900 fashion in Paris became an art form in itself, its designers inspired to creations of ever greater elegance and exoticism by the examples of the Old Masters and the popular painters of the day. But as art inspired fashion, so fashion served as a muse for painters from Courbet to Whistler, from Manet to Vuillard borrowed the poses of their models from the fashion plates of the day, and embraced the intimate scene - a walk in the garden, a visit from a friend - so typical of the genre.

The dialogue between fashion and art is illustrated here by some 120 paintings - works by Ingres, Tissot, Renoir, Manet, Monet, Seurat and Degas among them - and a clutch of hitherto unpublished photographs from the recently discovered archive of Disderi.

Genres: Art, History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published May 28, 2003

Reviews

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exquisitely beautiful book. I shudder thinking at how much the permissions for so much art work (much of it full-page) must have cost.

It focuses on the interconnectedness of fashion and art in 19th century France with a great deal of discussion of the rise of haute couture (embodied by Worth), the materials and fabrics that clothes for women were made of (scant discussion of fashion for men, probably because 19th century fashion for men devolved into the somber suit until the fin de siecle dandies sought to reclaim the color and pizazz of previous centuries), and what women were intending to signify with their dress.

It struck me on viewing the copious photographs and paintings in this book just how much I really do not like most 19th century fashion. I love the jewelry and the shoes pretty unabashedly, but the clothes are something else. At one point, Simon describes dresses as a kind of shell intended to completely obscure the body beneath, and that's exactly what they do. These dresses are so voluminous, so large in skirt and sometimes in sleeve depending on which point in the century; they are covered like a pre-k art project with bows and flowers and other embellishments. With few exceptions (there are some dresses that I do like, some jackets, some shawls), I just don't like these clothes. They are too much. I do like a great deal of twentieth century fashion inspired by Victorian clothing, but when I look at the real deal, all I can think is how uncomfortable those dresses must have been to wear--how heavy they were, how they constricted movement, how buttoned up to the chin they were, how heavy they must have been.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally one of my favorite books of all time—a gift from my late grandmother because she knew I loved 19th century portraiture, Vivienne Westwood, and punk music. It’s now my biggest inspiration for sketching—and how I learned about Ingres and Tissot.

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just Glorious.