It can be argued that haute couture began in the first half of the 19th century; certainly, its vagaries were recorded for posterity by French portrait painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in a wealth of richly detailed studies. For the fashion historian, Ingres's works offer visual insight into the burgeoning consumerism of the time and portray the men and, particularly, the women of society resplendent in their luxurious fabrics, intricate jewelry, and lavish accessories.
Aileen Ribeiro, head of dress at London's Courtauld Institute of Art, has written the exemplary Ingres in Fashion, in which she painstakingly describes Ingres's depiction of fashion as it reflects identity and status in mid-19th-century France. Ingres's dual obsessions--the precise and sumptuous reproductions of modish figures such as his 1853 portrait Josephine-Eleonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Bearn, Princesse de Broglie (a name as voluminous as the costume she wears) and the sensual, almost fantasy-like odalisques of Le Bain Turc (1862)--are amply represented and scrutinized here in more than 150 illustrations. A fascinating social, historical, and fashion document. --Catherine Taylor
Book Description
For more than half of the nineteenth century, French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres depicted in meticulous detail the rapidly changing appearance of the fashionable woman. This book, with over 150 illustrations, explores for the first time the ways in which clothing, accessories, and fabric defined and displayed women in Ingres`s portraits, including the grandes dames of elite society and the newly opulent bourgeoisie.
Ingres in Fashion FROM THE PUBLISHER
For more than half of the nineteenth century, French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) depicted the rapidly changing appearance of the fashionable woman with meticulous attention to detail and with rare perception and empathy. Working in a period that witnessed the development of a consumer society and the beginnings of couture, Ingres charted in his portraits how clothes were worn and what part they played in definitions of identity and status. This book explores for the first time the ways in which clothing, accessories, and fabrics define and display women in Ingres's portraits. With more than 150 illustrations that include the artist's portraits, fashion plates, portraits by contemporaries, and surviving items of costume, the book illuminates Ingres's work and its relation to the social and artistic discourse of his time. Eminent dress historian Aileen Ribeiro analyses in detail Ingres's attitudes, his skill in depicting clothing, and how he portrays the real and idealised woman in his paintings and drawings of the fashionable mainstream - the grandes dames of elite society, the newly opulent bourgeoisie, English visitors to Italy, and family and friends. Ribeiro also devotes a section of the book to the part played by textiles and accessories in Ingres's images of bathers and odalisques.
Art & Photography
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