#19th century

[the-evil-clergyman]

La Nuit by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1850-55)

[oldpaintings]

Karlštejnský havran,1882 by Mikoláš Aleš (Czech, 1852--1913)

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Bodice.

Date: 1883

Medium: Silk, glass

[jewellery-box]

Printed cotton day dress with sleeve inserts

American, ca. 1833

Frequently satirized by caricaturists, enormous gigot, or leg-of-mutton, sleeves were the defining characteristic of women's fashionable dress at the height of the Romantic period around 1830.   Ballooning out from the shoulder and tapering tightly at the wrist, their exaggerated proportions deliberately evoked similarly voluminous sleeves of the late sixteenth century and enhanced the ideal hourglass silhouette with its small waist and full, rounded skirts. Crescent-shaped down-filled pads often kept the sleeves properly expanded; pinned to the corset underneath, they could be used interchangeably with different gowns.

Most unusually, this floral-printed cotton day dress retains its sized linen sleeve supports that were clearly intended to be worn with this dress. Attached to the interior shoulder seams with tape ties, they are an exceptionally rare survival of an undergarment with its original attire.

Although British cottons continued to be imported into the United States in the post-Revolutionary years, it may be that this sturdy twilled cotton with pink, blue, and green blossoms and meandering vines set off against a rich, brown ground is of American manufacture. By the 1820s, the domestic printed cotton industry had increased significantly from its tentative beginnings in late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with large firms established in New England and along the Hudson River.  Floral-patterned cottons were a perennial favorite for day dresses in the 1820s and 1830s, especially for the warmer months from spring to early fall. Probably made by the wearer herself rather than a professional seamstress, the gown and its sleeve inserts demonstrate that American women were well aware of, and followed as closely as possible, current fashions from abroad.

Cora Ginsburg

[flowerytale]

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912), Spring (detail)

[nemfrog]

Plate 35. "Veins on the external surface of head and face." A series of anatomical plates. `1842.

Internet Archive

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪︎ Footed millefiori bowl.

Artist: Vincenzo Moretti (Italian, 1835–1901); Maker: Venezia-Murano Company (Italian 1872–1909)

Date: ca. 1880

Culture: Italian, Venice (Murano)

Medium: Glass

[history-of-fashion]

1855 Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz - Josefa Coello de Portugal 

(Museo del Prado)

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Jean Alphonse Roehn (1799-1864) "The Awakening" Oil on canvas Currently in a private collection

[ltwilliammowett]

Ships in full sail, by Eduardo de Martino, 1856

[eirene]

The Recitation, 1891 Thomas Wilmer Dewing

[sujaayyyyy]

In the dream I don't tell anyone, you put your head in my lap.

—Richard Siken, I Had a Dream About You

[crinolinecuriousity]

Blouse | c.late 19th - early 20th century | Indian

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Dressing gown.

Date: ca. 1875

Medium: Wool, silk

[empirearchives]

Napoleon being emo in 1800, but making an exception for Joseph and Duroc:

“Friendship is but a name. I love nobody. I do not even love my brothers. Perhaps Joseph a little from habit, and because he is my elder; and Duroc, I love him, too.”

The source of this quote is from Bourrienne, one of Napoleon’s schoolmates who he hired (and fired for possible corruption). He wrote a popular and debatable but very often sourced memoir.

Btw, here is an excerpt from a letter Napoleon wrote to Joseph:

“We have lived so many years so closely bound together that our hearts have become entwined. You know better than anyone how profoundly mine is entirely devoted to you.”

Yeah, he loved him only “a little.”

[twirld]

Julius Schrader (detail)