1784 Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse by Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (Nelson-Atkins Museum - Kansas City, Missouri USA)

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The Museum is on the Missouri side of Kansas City.

From batguano.

1784 Marie Gabrielle de Gramont, Duchesse de Caderousse by Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (Nelson-Atkins Museum - Kansas City, Missouri USA) BG
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This 1784 Vigee-Lebrun portrait of the Duchess of Caderousse clearly shows how fashions were changing before the 1789 upheaval. Compare this to a portrait of the Marquise Pompadour from a generation earlier. The fashion is somewhat eclectic - rolled sleeves adorned with ribbons and the gigantic hat over her gigantic coiffure. Hair had been worn straight for decades - now it is worn curly or even frizzy. The Duchess simulates farm work with the fruit basket. This is reminiscent of what occurred in the 1960s and 1970s in the USA with "guerilla theater," protesting the US war of choice in Indochina, and back-to-nature communes. Except that loss of direction led to a counterrevolution in 1980 that has yet to run its destructive course, not a revolution as in 1789. Tea anybody?

Keywords:  1784, Vigee-Lebrun, Duchess, French, frizzy bouffant coiffure, hat, scarf, elbow length close sleeves, rolled sleeves, bows, puffed cloth ornaments, cuffs, vee waistline, panniers

Dec 26, 2010 6:18 AM
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