Exhibition catalogue Impressionism and Fashion - Musée d'Orsay, Paris (French version)

Exhibition catalogue "Impressionism and Fashion" at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris (September 25, 2012 - January 30, 2013).

 

In Impressionist painting, figures and clothing lose, to take Mallarmé’s observation about Manet, “a little of their substance and their solidity”, or, in the words of the Goncourt brothers, they “are transfigured by the magic of light and shade”.

 

The figure, whether moving or at  rest, became more integrated into the surrounding atmosphere. The descriptive reality of the man and woman in the 1860-1880s and of their daily appearance underwent an undeniable metamorphosis because of these aesthetic approaches.

 

On the other hand, thanks to the swiftness of execution, the gestures and play of fabric against the body became more authentic. Thus, we learn much more about the look during this period than we would from the posed society portrait or theartificially natural genre scene.going about his business or in moments of leisure.

 

Along the paintings, a display of around fifty dresses and accessories, including ten hats, presents an overview of women’s fashion at the time of the Impressionists, a fashion that was mainly characterised by the gradual abandonment of the crinoline in favour of the bustle. Men’s fashion, less varied and more uniform, is evoked through some twenty pieces. All these examples of textiles come from public or private collections in France.