Galerie des Modes, 3e Cahier de Grandes Robes d'Etiquette, 5e Figure

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 Robe de Cour with its hoop, trimmed as Jacob's Ladder.

"Court dress requires that women, on the presentation days, have uncovered shoulders. This was formerly a handsome spectacle; it has since changed. Ambition nourished women's embonpoint and seemed to augment their youthfulness. Today one would say that this same ambition desiccates them and makes them thinner: the attractions of the court seem to have removed from them the rounded attractions which distinguished their predecessors as is attested in their portraits; but it has been decided, for the last thirty years, that the evidence of full health will be left to the bourgeoise, and that an exhausted or half-dead woman will be offered instead."

SEBASTIEN MERCIER, Tableau de Paris, 1788

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 21, 2019 at 3:37 PM

    If you can tell me any more about the artist or this particular illustration I would be very grateful

    ReplyDelete

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