Madame Hamelin was an associate of Josephine de Beauharnais. The
following is excerpted from pp. 347-348 of The Affairs
of Women - A Modern Miscellany Compiled, with Commentary by
Robert Bingham (Currawong Publishing, Sydney 1969), "When Josephine's
creole friend, Madame Hamelin, undertook a walk from the Luxembourg to the
Chaps Elysees in a costume that left her naked to the waist, she was followed
by a jeering mob.
Ernest John Knapton, The Empress Josephine
Truly there is nothing new under the sun,
except that in a few great cities today there woulde be jeering (though perhaps
leering) mobs follow a modern Madame Hamelin. Ernest Knapton, in his biography
of the Empress, gives an entertaining description of the new feminine society
in the period of the Convention and Directory in revolutionary France. The
women who succeeded the aristocrats of 'good society' were known as les
Merveilleuses (the 'Marvelous Ones who 'read little except erotic romances and
talked little except scandal.' They soon realized that that their advantageous
disposition could be expressed in 'antique Greek' costumes of see-through
fabrics. After the sans-culottes now came the sans-chemises. The elements of
this costume were a classic diadem on the head, a clinging, gauzelike robe
having a belt fastened with large cameos, a very light cashmere shawl, sandals
fitted to bare feet, and toes covered with rings. The attire underwent
increasingly daring modifications, all intended much less to cover than reveal
the charms of nature..."
This 1798 portrait of Josephine's associate Madame Hamelin shows
more simple dress where the ornamentation is found in the wrap, not the dress.
Keywords: 1798, Appiani, long curly
coiffure, scoop neckline, close skirt, wrap
