Women in Black in French Painting 1860-1900. Engaging with Modernity through the Medium of Fashion.

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Women in Black in French Painting

1860-1900

Engaging with Modernity through the Medium of Fashion

Author:(Penny(Simmers(/(Student(number:(6183824(/(Supervisor:(Gregor(Langfeld(/(Master(Thesis(Art(History,( University(of(Amsterdam(/(penny.simmers@student.uva.nl/(Completion(date:(7(August,(2015.(((

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1. Introduction

During the course of the nineteenth century, men’s clothing became increasingly sober, uniform and monochromatically black.1 The turn to black was so absolute that it caused French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) to observe that the men of his time were “all dressed in black like so many people in mourning”.2 Associations with grief and mourning aside, by mid-century black had become

inextricably linked with bourgeois male authority and was the favored garb of that characteristic figure of modernity: the flâneur.3

Nineteenth-century bourgeois women, on the other hand, were typically presented as the dazzling, colorful counterpart to the epoch’s predominantly soberly clad male.4 This is clearly expressed by the 1878 Guide sentimental de l’étranger

dans Paris (Sentimental Guide to Paris for Foreigners) when stating:

All of coquetry’s light is on Woman; we are the lining of the jewelry box against which the eternal diamond stands out … Civilized Man, from the point of view of his clothing, is nothing more than the accompanist of Woman; he allows her to sing the symphony

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of white, pink, and green as a solo, with all the modulations and half-tones of color that industry has introduced, like sharps and flats”.5

This color-based delineation of nineteenth-century middle- and upper-class femininity is borne out by the frequent depictions of balls and soirées from the second half of the nineteenth century, such as James Tissot’s Too Early (1873; fig. 1), Jean Béraud’s La Soirée autour du Piano (1880; fig. 2), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance in the City (1883; fig. 3), in which men are typically depicted wearing black evening wear, and the women accompanying them in flouncy pastel-hued gowns.

An intriguing phenomenon comes to light, however, when a larger sample of nineteenth-century depictions of contemporary women is considered. It then appears that the woman in black was an extremely popular subject for depiction by both the impressionists and their academic contemporaries during the second half of the nineteenth century.6 From approximately the 1860s onwards, black-clad women figure increasingly in bourgeois portraiture, and they form a marked presence in the Paris city scenes that the impressionists popularized during the second half of the century.7_{What might be made of these women in black? Were they all in mourning,}

or were other factors potentially in play?

Departing from the notion that dress, as Balzac once observed, is “the

expression of society”, this thesis explores the theme of black-clad women in French painting from approximately 1860 until the turn of the century.8 By doing so, possible levels of (societal) significance that black dresses and artists’ depictions thereof held and generated during this period are examined; the thesis being that the woman in black is a key figure for understanding a number of urban developments and

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 5_{(“Toute+la+lumière+de+la+coquetterie+est+pour+la+femme,+nous+sommes+le+fond+de+l’écrin+sur+lequel+se+détache+} l’éternel+diamant+…+L’homme+civilisé,+au+point+de+vue+de+l’habilement,+n’est+plus+que+l’accompagnateur+de+la+ femme;+il+laisse+chanter+seule+la+symphonie+du+blanc,+du+rose,+du+vert,+avec+toutes+les+modulations+de+demiE teintes+que+l’industrie+a+introduites,+comme+des+dièses+et+des+bémols”(quoted(by(Thiébaut(in(Impressionism,+ Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(135.++ 6_{(De(Young(2009:(32.(} 7_{(Forgione(2005:(664.(} 8_{(Balzac(quoted(in(Steele(1988:(59.(Balzac’s(dictum(“La+toilette+est+l’expression+de+la+société”(is(from(Traité+de+la+} vie+élégante((Paris,(1830),(which(first(appeared(in(the(literary(and(fashion(magazine(La+Mode.+Wilson(1985:3.+(

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changes in women’s role and place in French society that were taking place during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

It will be argued that in their frequent depictions of the woman in black, painters of the era were engaging with and responding to a number of distinctly modern phenomena through the metaphor of the black-clad female figure: increased social and gender mobility, the anonymity of the modern city, the increasing

ambiguity of dress in modernity, and the subsequent breakdown of legible social distinctions based upon appearances alone.

Research Questions

This thesis seeks to answer the following questions. What did it mean for a woman to wear black, or to be depicted wearing black during the latter part of the nineteenth century? What types of women wore black? In what kinds of scenes and settings were they depicted whilst wearing black, by whom, and to what effect? Did the impressionists and/or their academic counterparts in their depictions of black-clad women use black as a color to emphasize or destabilize the character and/or social standing of their sitters? Were these artists reflecting upon specific characteristics of modernity when engaging with the theme of the woman in black? Considering that during the nineteenth century black was overwhelmingly associated with masculine power and with man’s freedom of movement in the public sphere, what is the

significance of women opting to wear black during the latter part of the century? Did this color choice have social and/or gendered implications when worn by women? And if so, what were they?

Methodology

The following works form the focal point for answering these questions: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann (1874), Alfred Stevens, Porcelain Collector (1868), Berthe Morisot, Interior (1872), Jean-Jacques Henner Portrait de Mme*** (1874), Édouard Manet, La Parisienne (c. 1875), Berthe Morisot, Figure de Femme [Before the Theater], (1875), Mary Stevenson Cassatt, In

the Loge (1878), Jean Béraud, Devant l’Opera par Temps de Neige (1879), Jean

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Modiste sur les Champs Elysées (c. 1880), Jean Béraud, L’attente (c. 1880), and

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard des Italiens, Morning Sunshine (1897).

These paintings, by both progressive and more conservative artists, show the woman in black in a range of different environments: within the bourgeois domestic interior; in indeterminate settings between the domestic interior and Paris’s public spaces; and in the streets of Paris. The chosen works represent but a handful of the paintings dating from the second half of the nineteenth century featuring black-clad women in interior and exterior settings. However, given the practical limitations of analyzing the entire body of black-clad women in French painting for the period from 1860 until roughly the turn of the century, the selected works were singled out for review for the following reasons.

Renoir’s Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann, Stevens’ Porcelain

Collector and Morisot’s Interior are chosen as representative early examples of

nineteenth-century artists’ dedicated engagement with the theme of black-clad contemporary women situated in domestic interiors during a period in which black was becoming a fashionable color for nineteenth-century women to wear. Notably, comparable interior portraits of women in chic black dresses were frequently produced throughout the whole second half of the nineteenth century, albeit that towards the end of the century they were painted predominantly by academic artists, fashionable women in chic black dresses having faded from the impressionists’ interests by approximately the 1880s.9

The impressionist depictions of black-clad women portrayed in indeterminate, neutral settings (Manet’s La Parisienne and Morisot’s Figure de Femme) form

somewhat of an anomaly in comparison to significant numbers of other nineteenth-century portraits of black-clad women set in comparably neutral settings, such as Henner’s Portrait de Mme***, in that the women depicted in the impressionists’ works are not static but imbued with a sense of motion. These paintings are chosen for this reason and for the questions raised by the impressionists having chosen to depict their black-clad women in such manner.

Béraud’s, Zorn’s and Pissarro’s city scenes featuring black-clad women are taken from various time periods ranging from the 1870s until the end of the

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nineteenth century. They are chosen as representative early and late examples of a larger body of works produced from approximately the 1870s until the fin-de-siècle, in which black-clad women, in company and alone, form a marked presence in the streets of the French capital.

Although the focus of this thesis is the woman in black, it is important to realize that Parisian women were also portrayed whilst wearing other colors during the

second half of the nineteenth century. Non-black dresses have, however, not been brought within the scope of this thesis, as a comparative analysis of the significance of women wearing colored and/or white clothing as opposed to black in Paris’s various public and private environments during the second half of the nineteenth century, though a potentially rich field of enquiry, would merit a separate study.

While this thesis takes paintings of black-clad women dating from the second half of the nineteenth century as its main point of reference, it does not rely solely upon a prima facie visual analysis of the same. It draws, whenever possible, on a broad range of nineteenth-century sources for support - from contemporary conduct books, Salon reviews, photographs, essays, caricature and fashion plates, to fashion writing.

In what may, therefore, be termed a broad iconological and socio-historical approach, this thesis seeks to contextualize painted images of the woman in black within the broader societal and cultural framework of the second half of the

nineteenth century, and to explain her relevance in light of contemporary fashion discourses, dominant nineteenth-century ideologies concerning women’s place, identity and role in society, and urban developments that were taking place in the French capital during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

State of Research

The phenomenon of the woman in black in nineteenth-century French painting is little remarked upon in art historical literature. Aileen Ribeiro discusses Ingres’ portraits of black-clad women in her Ingres in Fashion: Representations of Dress and

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of the sitters’ costumes and the immaculate precision with which Ingres rendered them, not with the relationship between fashion, art and modernity.10

Anne Hollander and John Harvey have written on the history of black as a sartorial choice, but neither analyzes the nineteenth-century woman in black in any great detail.11 Michel Pastoureau compiled a sweeping history of the color black but attends only briefly to the nineteenth century, and does not mention the woman in black at all.12 Of the handful of scholars who have noted the woman in black’s presence in nineteenth-century French painting only one, Justine De Young, makes the woman in black the focus of her research.

In her dissertation ‘Women in Black: Fashion, Modernity and Modernism in Paris, 1860-1880’, De Young positions the woman in black as a key figure through which to explore the dynamic period of the late nineteenth century. She puts artists’ representations of three main categories of women - the prostitute, the widow and the fashionable Parisienne - in dialogue with discourses on fashion, morality and modernity of the 1860s, 70s and 80s.13_{De Young does so with emphasis on the}

perceived relationship between dress, character and morality during this period. Although panoramic in intent, De Young’s work leaves many questions regarding the effects of women wearing black during the latter part of the nineteenth century

unanswered. She does not, for instance, consider whether black clothing may have been implicated in women’s increased urban mobility during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

This thesis attempts to fill that lacuna. Building on De Young’s work, related yet ultimately different lines of enquiry are pursued. Although this thesis too situates representations of black-clad modern women within discourses on fashion, femininity

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and modernity in Paris during the latter part of the nineteenth century, it does not aim to ‘unpack’ specific feminine types or figures of the period, nor is its primary focus the perceived relationship between dress, character and morality.

To the contrary, it focuses upon a number of modern urban developments and changes in the societal position of women that were taking place during the second half of the nineteenth century, and analyzes pictures of the women in black in light of these changes. This with a view to determining whether or not, and to what extent, artists of the period may have been engaging with a number of distinctly modern phenomena through the metaphor of the black-clad female figure, i.e. whether the depictions of the woman in black function in effect as expressions of contemporary society and societal change.

This thesis also advances a new line of enquiry that hinges upon the concept of power dressing. Power dressing being a notion introduced, but not embellished upon, by John Harvey in his 1995 study on men in black in nineteenth-century England and France. Harvey defines power dressing as “when anyone not in a governing group chooses to wear the clothes the governing group has long worn”.14

Although black-clad nineteenth-century men may not constitute a governing group in the literal sense of the word, given their ubiquitous presence in the urban landscape of nineteenth-century Paris, this thesis uses them de facto as such when venturing a number of considerations concerning the possible effects of women donning a color that was typically associated with masculine bourgeois authority and the flâneur’s freedom of movement in nineteenth-century Paris.

Two concepts relating to fashion and the modern fashion system have proven valuable for the present author’s thought process when considering the effects of women ‘power dressing’ in a nineteenth-century context. The first is the theory of social psychology of dress that centers on the premise that dress is used to shape the expectations and behavior of others and realize goals individuals have for

themselves in everyday life. As Kim Johnson and Sharon Lennon observe, “because dress items and behaviors are linked to social positions as well as to meanings, dress is used to infer information about others. However, the inverse is also true. Because dress is used to make inferences about others, dress can be consciously

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selected to manage the inferences drawn about one individual by another, or put another way, to manage social perceptions of self”.15 Second is the acknowledged inter-relation between fashion and gender, the premise being that one cannot study dress without considering gender.16

Art historical publications concerning the place of women in nineteenth-century French society are numerous. Until the beginning of the twenty-first century the

majority hereof tended to focus primarily on the perceived dichotomy between the private sphere of the home and the public sphere of the street: the home being where women reigned, while it was men’s prerogative to freely roam the urban space. Such accounts are informed by Judith Butler’s canonical theory of gender performativity according to which gender identities are considered to be societal constructs that become entrenched over time through their repeated performance.17

Within feminist art history, Griselda Pollock and Janet Wolff were among the first to expand upon this phenomenon and study nineteenth-century paintings of modern women from the perspective of gendered spaces.18_{In their publications they}

accept as a basic concept that society in the nineteenth century was organized according to public and private realms, that this division was linked to gender, and that women’s radius of action and participation in society was directly impacted by the nineteenth-century ideology of domesticity according to which women were relegated to the home and domestic duties.

In her essay ‘The Invisible Flâneuse’ Janet Wolff argues, for example, that, unlike modernity’s flâneur, nineteenth-century women were not at liberty to roam the streets of Paris freely and without a chaperone for fear of being labeled a prostitute.19

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Wolff and Pollock, together with art historians such as Kathleen Adler, Tamar Garb, Ruth Iskin and Anne Higonnet, have contributed significantly to art historical research regarding the effect that this perceived societal divide had on the lives and work of the impressionist female artists Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) and Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844-1926).20

Such accounts of rigidly separated public and private spheres have since been nuanced. It is now recognized that impressionism’s crucial phase - the 1870s and 1880s - coincided with a period in which changes were taking place in the

opportunities available to and autonomy of women.21 An increasing number of writers are now seen to be shifting their focus from women’s exclusion, to their presence and increasing autonomy in the nineteenth-century metropolis, though none have done so with any attention to the color of the clothing worn by such women. Two such publications are worthy of note.

The first is the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Women in

Impressionism: From Mythical Feminine to Modern Woman that took place at the Ny

Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen in 2006-2007. This exhibition surveyed

impressionist paintings of women from the 1860s to the 1890s. It investigated the manner in which the impressionists utilized woman as an artistic motif in their

attempts to bring forth a new form of painting, and considered whether these painters offered any kind of artistic resistance to the traditional patriarchal nineteenth-century notion of woman as a purely decorative creature best relegated to domestic duties and the private sphere of the home.22 This exhibition succeeded in challenging the hitherto basic assumption that there was a clear-cut divide between feminine and masculine spaces during the nineteenth century by taking a closer look at the

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presence of women in ‘intermediate’ or ‘cross-over’ zones of modernity, such as the new parks of Paris.

The second of such publications is a set of twelve essays compiled by Aruna D’Souza and Tom McDonough entitled: The Invisible Flâneuse? Gender, Public

Space and Visual Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris.23 D’Souza and McDonough asked the volume’s contributors to, “reconsider the assumption that women’s experience of nineteenth-century modernity was severely circumscribed by social prescriptions regarding their occupation of the city’s public spaces”.24 The end result demonstrates that there was in fact more fluidity between public and private spheres during the second half of the nineteenth century than had previously been assumed. Key to this observation is the circumstance that towards the end of the century novel urban attractions, such as department stores and parks, offered new spaces for women to venture out into, and simultaneously legitimized their increased presence in the streets of Paris.

Marni Kessler’s contribution to the D’Souza and McDonough volume, which deals with a single fashion accessory - the veil -, is especially interesting. Kessler argues convincingly that the wearing of a veil can be linked to women’s increased freedom of movement in the streets of Paris during the latter part of the nineteenth century.25 Kessler’s discussion of the veil, as worn by bourgeois women in Second Empire Paris, demonstrates that this accessory gained currency as an emblem of respectability for the woman who wore it, shielded her from the dust of the newly renovated city, and was a means of controlling her exposure to the gaze of its male inhabitants due to the fact, as Kessler observes, that it “disallowed easy access to the woman behind it”.26

Kessler concludes that, “the veil of the Second Empire is never simply a fashion accessory, but is, rather, bound to the discourse of the new city, functioning

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 23_{(Aruna(D’Souza(and(Tom(McDonough.(The+Invisbale+Flâneuse?+Gender,+Public+Space+and+Visual+Culture+in+} NineteenthECentury+Paris.(Manchester:(Manchester(University(Press,(2006.( 24_{(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(1.(} 25_{(Marni(Kessler.(‘Dusting(the(Surface,(or(the(Bourgeoise,(the(Veil,(and(Haussmann’s(Paris’(in(D’Souza(and(} McDonough(2006:(49W65.( 26_{(Kessler(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(58.(}

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as a visual and physical filter between the woman who wore it and modern Paris”.27

Her essay begs the question whether the donning of black dresses by women when entering the streets of nineteenth-century Paris operated not unlike the veil: signaling its wearer’s respectability, shielding her from the curious eyes of the city’s male inhabitants and facilitating her freedom of movement throughout the modern city.

In addition to publications concerning public versus private spaces and woman’s place in nineteenth-century society, there has been a recent surge of interest in what women wore at the time, and in the depiction thereof by the

impressionists and their contemporaries. Building upon seminal works such as that of Philippe Perrot who, in Fashioning the Bourgeoisie: A History of Clothing in the

Nineteenth Century, shows how clothing both reflected and embodied the century’s

values, aspirations and anxieties, art historians have started to focus serious academic attention on the relationship between art and modernity as expressed through the medium of contemporary fashion.28_{Given that the study of dress was}

long relegated to the sidelines of art history and regarded as a matter best left to costume historians and fashion aficionados, it is an interesting development that art historians and museums have begun to engage more broadly with the significance of fashion in art.

In this regard, the current thesis is particularly indebted to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity, which took place consecutively at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Musée D’Orsay, Paris in 2012/2013. The exhibition placed portraits of modern women by impressionists and their contemporaries in dialogue with each other, contemporary fashion plates and fashion writing. By exploring how fashion came to be utilized by the impressionists as indirect societal critique, aspirational status symbol, field for experimentation, and vehicle for a new visual language, this exhibition confirmed fashion as a relevant site for art historical investigation. It was through the catalogue accompanying this exhibition that the present author first became aware of the frequency with which women in black were portrayed during the

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27_{(Kessler(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(59.(}

28_{(Philippe(Perrot.(Fashioning+the+Bourgeoisie:+A+History+of+Clothing+in+the+Nineteenth+Century.(Trans.(Richard(}

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nineteenth century. This is, however, not a topic that any of the catalogue’s contributors explores in any detail.

The above publications, in combination with the fact that the woman in black in late-nineteenth century painting is little remarked upon in art historical literature, formed the incentive for this thesis and lends relevance to the questions posed by it. Chapter Summaries

Chapter 2 sets the scene by describing the dissolution of France’s sumptuary sartorial laws in the wake of the French Revolution of 1789. It introduces the nineteenth century’s modern fashion system and reflects on the new consumer culture that this engendered. The implications of these developments for the hierarchizing power of fashion, and the growing importance of taste in dress in an age that was obsessed with the reading of appearances are subsequently explored.

Chapter 3 examines black’s ascendency to the status of fashionable color during the latter part of the nineteenth century, discusses various connotations of black dress when worn by women, and explores a number of meanings that were conveyed when black-clad women were depicted in bourgeois domestic interiors.

Chapter 4 discusses the place of women in nineteenth-century Paris, the ideology of domesticity underpinning dominant contemporary conceptions regarding woman’s perceived role in society, and the era’s conceptions concerning the inter-linkage between morality and outward appearances. The chapter introduces the concept of power dressing and seeks with it to explain the increased presence of black-clad women in the streets of Paris during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Chapter 5 delves deeper into the phenomenon of black-clad women becoming progressively more visible in the French capital, and considers the effects thereof from the perspectives of social mobility and anonymity of the modern city. Chapter 6 concludes this thesis by formulating answers to this research questions reached on the basis of the foregoing chapters.

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2. Toward a Modern Fashion System

For centuries French fashion respected the hierarchy of conditions and was a prerogative of birth and rank. This changed radically in the second half of the

nineteenth century when a modern fashion system emerged that democratized dress and wrought groundbreaking changes in the formerly reliable visual correspondence between outward appearances and social rank. As Philippe Perrot observes,

“immobility in the distribution of vestimentary signs always corresponds to immobility in social structures”; the reverse became true during the second half of the

nineteenth century.29

2.1 The Freedom of Dress Decree

During the ancien régime, sumptuary sartorial laws and ordinances upheld a social hierarchy in which everyone was a subject of the king and a member of one of three estates: clergy, nobility, and the so-called ‘Third Estate’ comprising all others.30

Under this highly stratified system the form, fabric, and color of a garment announced a person’s quality and estate, and a series of sumptuary sartorial laws ensured the visual correspondence between dress and social position, allowing very little room for fluidity between social ranks or confusion in status on the basis of outward

appearances.31

As Philippe Perrot observes, the sumptuary sartorial laws were in effect for the aristocracy “protectionist measures; [that] kept social ranks visible and proclaimed the nobles’ monopoly of luxury that distinguished them from rising classes. By codifying cut, materials and colors, aristocratic clothing guaranteed the exclusivity of vestimentary marks of power”.32 The Edict of 1514, for example, forbade all

commoners and non-nobles from assuming “the title of nobility, either by their

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 29_{(Perrot(1994:(16.(} 30_{(De(Young(2009:(57;(Godfrey(2010:(143;(Perrot(1994:(10.(The(ancien+régime+spanned(a(period(of(} approximately(four(centuries(and(ended(with(the(French(Revolution(of(1789.+((( 31_{(Perrot(1994:(15;(Godfrey(2010:(143;(Lipovetsky(1994:(29W30.(} 32_{(Perrot(1994:(15.(}

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qualities or dress”.33_{Other edicts contained even more detailed prescriptions}

regarding fabrics and adornments reserved solely for the nobles, including silk, velvet, taffeta, satin, damask, valuable jewels and, oddly enough, flesh colored stockings.34 During this period one truly was what one wore, and clothing stood symbol for the immobility of the era’s social structure.

This system was overturned in the wake of the French Revolution in 1789.35 On 29 October 1793 the so-called ‘Freedom of Dress Act’ was issued stating that “no person of either sex can force any citizen, male or female, to dress in a particular way, under penalty of being considered a suspect, treated as such, and prosecuted as a disturber of the peace; everyone is free to wear the garment or garb suitable to his or her sex that he or she pleases”.36

It is interesting that this decree, which initiates a release from dress

restrictions according to class, is qualified according to gender. This is a departure from the principle of reciprocity that characterized the dress codes of society’s upper echelons during the eighteenth century. In that period, as John Harvey observes, “both men and women … were equally partial to ample displays of lace, rich velvets, fine silks, and embroideries, to highly ornamented footwear, to coiffures, wigs, and hats of rococo embellishment, and to lavish use of scented powders, rouges, and other cosmetics … men’s embroidered satin suits might be as colorful as women’s gowns”.37 The Freedom of Dress Act’s qualifying statement according to sex would gain in importance during the latter part of the nineteenth century when the discourse concerning the perceived inter-relationship between (appropriate) female

appearances and morality intensified.

The 1793 repeal of the sumptuary sartorial laws legally liberated France’s citizens from a rigidly class-based dress code and paved the way for the emergence

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 33_{(Roche,(Daniel.(La+Culture+des+apparences,+une+histoire+du+vêtement,+XVIIEXVIII+siècle.+Paris:(1989:(54(quoted(} in(Godfrey(2010:(143.(( 34_{(Godfrey(2010:(143.(} 35_{(Perrot(1994:(20;(Hiner(2010:(16.(} 36_{(Le+Moniteur+universel,(no.(39,(I(décade(de(Brumaire,(l’an(II((30(October(1793);(Perrot(1994:(20,(201;(Hiner(} 2010:(17.( 37_{(Harvey(1995:(196,(272.(}

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of a democratic fashion system. However, regardless of the fact that by law one was now allowed to wear clothing formerly reserved to more elevated social classes, the Freedom of Dress Act did not have a universal liberating effect. It would take until the second half of the nineteenth century and the emergence of a modern fashion

system before men and women were able to acquire the clothing that they had long been legally allowed to wear.38

In practice, the Freedom of Dress Act was for women initially, therefore, a revolution in theory only. Even though women of all classes were in principle now free in their choice of fabrics, colors and sartorial adornment, during the opening decades of the nineteenth century true freedom of choice was rendered practically impossible due to production processes and commercial practices that remained firmly rooted in old regime traditions.

For decades following the abolishment of the sumptuary sartorial laws, every separate element of a women’s garment was still sewn by hand, and each step in its production continued to fall within the remit of strictly separate protectionist guilds.39

The making of a dress thus continued to be a time-consuming and, depending on the materials and degree of adornment used, costly process; it could take months for a seamstress to complete and accessorize a gown.40 As a consequence, fashionable clothing and the option of regularly up-dating one’s wardrobe remained in effect only within reach of the truly wealthy.41

Until approximately the beginning of the Second Empire (1852-1870), women’s fashion evolved slowly and dresses tended to be stylistically rather

homogenous. This does not come as a surprise when considering the lifecycle that would have been involved in first producing, and subsequently emulating, the latest in fashion. Emmeline Raymond, editor of the fashion journal La Mode illustrée, attests retrospectively to the homogeneity in female dress when observing in 1863 that, “In the past fashion had an uncontestable character of unity: thus when one saw

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

38_{(Perrot(1994:(80.(} 39_{(Perrot(1994:(36W40.(} 40_{(De(Young(2009:(57,(59.(}

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one woman, one saw them all: the distinction lay only in the price of the fabrics used; as to the form of the garments, it was invariably uniform”.42

As Raymond’s further observations make clear, women’s wear was only

superficially homogenous during the first half of the nineteenth century. It is important to realize that most of the garments to which she refers were made to order and therefore unique. Moreover, the time consuming process involved in the production thereof and, as Raymond notes, the quality and price of the fabrics used, would clearly have attested to a garment’s value and revealed the status of its wearer. Consequently, during the initial decades of the nineteenth century female clothing continued to function in much the same way as it had under the ancien régime - like a lexicon.43

Around mid-century, a number of changes occurred which provided women of divergent classes and budgets with access to fashionable goods and, as a

consequence, affected fashion’s prima facie power to act as a reliable symbolizer of wealth and its wearer’s social standing. The most important stimulant was the advent of Paris’s new department stores with their offering of mass-produced fabrics and ready-to-wear clothing.44_{What set this process in motion and how did it evolve?}

2.2 The Advent of a Modern Fashion System and the Importance of Taste The first tentative cracks in the ancien régime’s traditional system of producing and distributing clothing appeared in the 1840s when so-called magasins de nouveautés started opening up in Paris.45 By grouping together goods previously sold in separate venues these establishments, that were a hybrid of fancy goods and haberdashery stores, anticipated the department stores of the Second Empire.46

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 42_{(“Autrefois+la+mode+avait+un+incontestable+caractère+d’unité:+telle+on+voyait+une+femme,+telle+on+les+voyait+} toutes:+la+différence+existait+seulement+dans+le+prix+des+étoffes+employées;+quant+à+la+forme+des+vêtements,+elle+ était+invariablement+identique”.(Emmeline(Raymond.(‘Modes’.(La+Mode+illustrée,(no.(51+(December(21,(1863):( 407(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(57W58.((( 43_{(Perrot(1994:(82.(} 44_{(De(Young(2009:(55W60;(Steele(2004:(319;(TétartWVittu(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(213.(} 45_{(De(Young(2009:(55W56;(Perrot(1994:(36W49.(} 46_{(De(Young(2009:(55W56;(Perrot(1994:(54,(58.(}

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The first shop in Paris that took the next step of offering its customers the integrated service of both selling fabric and making it into clothes, did not appear until 1850.47 Aided by the subsequent introduction of the sewing machine, standardized dress patterns, improved production techniques and an increasingly rational division of labor, reasonably priced fashionable clothing started to be found in the homes of increasing numbers of women, including those of modest means.48 The ready-to-wear industry for civilian clothing, which would drive the culture of consumption engendered by the department stores, grew out of this and started to attract a significant bourgeois clientele.49

Department stores or grands magasins, such as Bon Marché, Printemps and La Samaritaine that still exist today, were established during the Second Empire.50 The first to open was Bon Marché in 1852.51 French novelist and playwright Émile Zola’s (1840–1902) retrospective dramatization of the fashion industry of the 1860s,

Au bonheur des dames (1883), attests to the importance that these institutions had

for the democratization of luxury and the advent of a fluid, fast-changing modern fashion system.52_{Indeed, by making affordable and fashionable clothing available to}

people who did not only belong to the upper classes and by transforming shopping into a legitimate leisure activity for the urban bourgeois lady, the department store was to become one of the most visible symbols of the profound changes effected in Paris during the nineteenth century by the onward march of modernity.53

One of the main factors contributing to the department stores’ success and the rapid dissemination of fashion in France during the second half of the nineteenth-century, was increased circulation in the capital resulting from Baron

Georges-((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 47_{(Zeldin(1980:(86;(De(Young(2009:(58.(} 48_{(Perrot(1994:(53.(} 49_{(De(Young(2009:(58;(Perrot(1994:(54.(} 50_{(Perrot(1994:(58;(De(Young(2009:(73.(} 51_{(Perrot(1994:(58.(} 52_{(Émile(Zola.(Ladies’+Paradise+[Au(bonheur(des(dames].(Trans.(Brian(Nelson,(Oxford:(Oxford(University(Press,(} 1998;(D’Souza(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(129.(( 53_{(D’Souza(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(129.(}

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Eugène Haussmann’s (1809-1881) urban reconstruction program (1853-1870).54

Citizens of Paris who previously had been largely contained within their own quartiers could now easily frequent the department stores and traverse the city on the new omnibus service.55 Given, as Joanne Entwistle observes, that “fashion thrives in a world of social mobility, increasing urbanization helped stimulate fashion [by] providing an expanded stage for the display and transmission of clothing”.56

In offering fashionable clothing and fabrics at greatly reduced cost the

department stores, in combination with the increasing urbanization of the city, directly contributed to the diminishment of fashion’s classifying power. Where previously the comparative quality of a gown and the chicness of its cut would have divulged the status of its wearer that was now no longer the case. Social demarcations began to blur as working-class and petit bourgeois women started increasingly to wear fashions formerly reserved to ladies of the leisure class.57 As a result, it became increasingly difficult to fix class identities on the basis of outward appearances alone.58

As wearing the latest styles was no longer inevitably a mark of exalted social status, more emphasis started being placed upon taste, discretion and propriety in dress and comportment.59 The importance hereof was, as Justine De Young observes, further compounded by this period’s pervasive belief that, “fashion was linked to character and morality” and that what one wore “not only reflect[ed] one’s morality, but also affect[ed] it”.60

This is a sentiment that is also found in fashion journals of the time. Emmeline Raymond’s 1862 message to her La Mode illustrée readers is exemplary hereof. In it she admonishes her readers that, “fashion governs not only one’s outward

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 54_{(Perrot(1994:(59;(De(Young(2009:(94W95.(} 55_{(De(Young(2009:(95.(} 56_{(Entwistle(2000:(108.(} 57_{(Steele(2004:(319;(Lipovetsky(1994:(31;(Hiner(2010:(14W16,(44.(} 58_{(Kessler(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(51.(} 59_{(Broude(2001:(41;(De(Young(2009:(55,(66,(94W100;(Perrot(1994:(20,(81W83;(Zeldin(1980:(86;((Hiner(2010:(17.((} 60_{(De(Young(2009:(98.(Similarly,(Entwistle(2000:(121W123.(}

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appearance, but also one’s language, comportment and attitudes”.61_{It was, as}

Charlotte Nicklas notes, believed that “a modest, pleasing appearance could reflect a woman’s inner virtue and be an asset in her role as moral guide, but dressing in too extreme a manner, or to attract attention was condemned”.62 The avoidance of extremes was in fact the maxim that resounded loudest throughout fashion advice of the second half of the nineteenth century.63

Illustrated fashion journals accordingly set themselves up as arbiters of these new values, generally instructing their readers to beware of following every new fashion unwittingly - only those in good taste - and to remain constantly aware of propriety in dress, whilst opportunistically feeding them with the latest fashion tips.64 As Justine De Young notes, the fashion press thus effectively “ensured [its]

indispensability to the increasingly fashion-conscious bourgeoisie and increased turnover”.65

The newfound emphasis on taste had both a liberating effect and fueled consumer consumption as people came to realize that ‘good taste’ was not a quality reserved to the upper classes, nor any longer determined solely by wealth.66_Spurred

on by the fashion periodicals, women were encouraged to believe that taste and elegance were accessible ‘commodities’, values that could be learned provided one knew how to navigate the fast-flowing rapids of fashion, for which as noted the fashion periodicals offered their services as guides.67

The liberating realization that one could ‘acquire’ good taste and elegance in turn facilitated the troubling potential for social climbing and even imposture.68 As

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 61_{(“La+mode+soumet+à+sa+loi+nonEseulement+les+vêtements,+les+ameublements,+tous+les+objets+utiles+et+induites,+} mais+aussi+le+langage,+les+mouvements+et+les+attitudes”.(Emmeline(Raymond.(‘Les(variations(de(la(mode:(À( propos(d’attitudes’.(La+Mode+illustrée,(no.(33((August(18,(1862):(188W189(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(98.(( 62_{(Nicklas(2009:(70.(} 63_{(Nicklas(2009:(70.(} 64_{(De(Young(2009:(55,(65;(De(Young(in(Balducci(2014:(99;(Perrot(1994:(89.(} 65_{(De(Young(in(Balducci(2014:(99.(} 66_{(Hiner(2010:(18;(De(Young(2009:(65.(} 67_{(Nicklas(2009:(74,(78.(} 68_{(Perrot(1994:(82;(De(Young(2009:(96;(Kessler(in(D’Souza(and(McDonough(2006:(52.(((((}

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Philippe Perrot puts it, clothing was now understood to not only “reveal real social positions but also positions only imagined or anticipated”.69

The fashion press clearly recognized that its readers used fashion to construct their feminine identities, and that the plates included in the periodicals played an important and empowering part therein.70 As Anne Higonnet explains, fashion plates were empowering because they “gave women a sense of potential control over their individual, moral and class identity”.71 This idea of control, the shaping of individual moral and class identity, avoidance of the appearance of impropriety and fashion’s role therein, would become increasingly urgent in the context of Paris’s rapid urbanization.72

Consequently, during the nineteenth century women had to walk a daily

tightrope of taste in their efforts to maintain, and, thanks to the increased accessibility of fashion, potentially enhance, their social positions. Each element of a woman’s carefully calibrated ensemble contributed to her public image and how her

environment perceived her. A misstep on the tightrope of taste could mean the difference between being considered tastefully and appropriately fashionable, or morally suspect.73_{As the following chapters will illustrate, the wearing of black was}

directly implicated in the manner in which nineteenth-century women negotiated the complex worlds of public image, proper decorum and their relationship vis-à-vis men.

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 69_{(Perrot(1994:(82.(Balzac(acknowledged(this(sentiment(as(early(as(1830(when(stating(that(that(the(question(of(} costume(“is(one(of(tremendous(importance(for(those(who(wish(to(appear(to(have(what(they(do(not(have,( because(that(is(often(the(best(way(of(getting(it(later(on”.(Honoré(de(Balzac.(‘Treatise(on(the(Elegant(Life’.(La+ Mode+illustrée,(1830(quoted(in(Steele(1988:(60.(((( 70_{(Nicklas(2013:(2;(De(Young(in(Balducci(2014:(100.(} 71_{(Anne(Higonnet,(‘Feminine(Visual(Culture(in(the(Age(of(Mechanical(Reproduction’:(98(in(Berthe+Morisot’s+} Images+of+Women+(1992)(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(66.(( 72_{(De(Young(2009:(142.(} 73_{(Clayson(1991:(58,(64;(Valverde(1989:(169W172;(De(Young(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(236.(((}

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3. Fashionable Black

Given the growing emphasis on, and increased ambiguity of, women’s appearance during the second half of the nineteenth century and the role of fashion and taste therein, how was it perceived when women wore black? Prior to mid-century,

ubiquitous black when worn by a bourgeoise would, as Justine De Young observes, have “signified household mourning or would simply not have been done”.74_{As the}

chapter will illustrate, this changed during the latter part of the nineteenth century. During this period, ladies of the leisure class embraced black as a simultaneously fashionable, tasteful, practical and versatile color.75

3.1 Ladies of the Leisure Class Embrace Black

Black was initially the exception in nineteenth-century bourgeois women’s clothing, as it was the norm in men’s, unless one was an equestrian who traditionally wore an all-black riding habit.76 Édouard Manet’s The Horsewoman (1882; fig. 4) shows a typical example of such masculine-inspired attire, which remained unchanged

throughout the whole of the nineteenth century. Other than that, as Justine De Young remarks, during the first half of the nineteenth century “the synecdoche of fashion was never the black dress”.77

To the contrary, black was the paradigmatic color of mourning and was

associated with women of fragile means, such as shop girls, bar maids, milliners and domestic servants, and with eccentrics of the likes of the French novelist Amantine-Lucile Dupin (1804-1876), better known by her pseudonym George Sand.78 None of the foregoing, with the exception of the equestrian, was a status to which any

respectable nineteenth-century bourgeois lady would have aspired. ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 74_{(De(Young(2009:(32.(} 75_{(De(Young(2009:(32.(} 76_{(Harvey(1995:(203,(266;(De(Young(2009:(107;(Burnham(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(254.(} 77_{(De(Young(2009:(103.(} 78_{(De(Young(2009:(103;(Ribeiro(1999:(107;(Harvey(1995:(10,(201W203;(Hollander(1978:(379,(382;(Steele(200:(} 325.((((

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Commencing in the late 1840s, women’s periodicals started to remark

intermittently on trends in black for accessories and trimmings, such as the vogue for black lace in the fashion periodical Le Follet in 1848.79 Around 1860, however, things started to change in earnest. During the course of the decade, black also started to be considered an extremely fashionable color for bourgeois women to wear on all types of occasions.80 Excerpts from contemporary fashion journals attest to this.

In September 1866, Emmeline Raymond of the fashion journal La Mode

illustrée wrote, “I can already predict that nothing will be more fashionable this

autumn and winter than black … Black, and above all matte black cloth free of adornment, will dominate all clothing”.81 Raymond’s fashion prophecy came true. Indeed, matte black dresses became so dominant on the Paris fashion scene that Raymond was prompted to echo Balzac’s sentiment of three decades earlier

regarding male attire when stating that, “for several months now black has been the dominant color for Parisian outfits. It is becoming gloomy to see this great city in a state of perpetual grieving”.82

Gloomy or not, black was in Paris to stay and soon became a fixture in the fashionable woman’s wardrobe. It is again Emmeline Raymond who informs her readers of this when observing in 1874 “if I were asked what is fashionable […] I would answer: everything is black. Never indeed was black so generally adopted. At one time, that is to say only recently, we excluded black from full formal dress [la

grande toilette] that is to say for: dinners, soirées, wedding services. Nowadays it is

worn in all circumstances, without exception, and in preference to any other color”.83

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 79_{(Ribeiro(1999:(120.(} 80_{(De(Young(2009:(103W104;(De(Young(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(108;(TétartWVittu(in(} Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(65;(Harvey(2013:(211;(Mitchell(2013:(595.( 81_{(“On+prévoit+déjà+que+rien+ne+sera+plus+à+la+mode+cet+automne+et+cet+hiver,+que+le+noir+[…].+Le+noir+dominera+} cette+année+pour+tous+les+vêtements,+et+principalement+le+drap+mat+sans+aucun+brillant”.(Emmeline(Raymond,( ‘Modes’.(La+Mode+illustrée,(no.(38((September(1866):298(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(104.( 82_{(“Le+noir+a+été+la+couleur+dominante+des+toilettes+parisiennes+depuis+plusieurs+mois+[…].+Cela+devenait+lugubre,+} de+voir+cette+grande+cité+en+deuil+perpétuel”.(Emmeline(Raymond.(‘Modes’.(La+Mode+illustrée,(no.(9((February( 1867):(69(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(104.( 83_{(“Si+l’on+me+demandait+ce+qui+est+à+la+mode,+et+que+je+fusse+oblige+à+réponse+à+la+fois+laconique+et+exacte,+je+} repondrais:+tout+ce+qui+est+noir.+Jamais+le+noir+ne+fut+en+effet+aussi+généralement+adopté.+Autrefois,+c’estEàEdire+

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Raymond’s statement held true. During the 1870s and beyond, black became firmly entrenched in the sartorial scheme of the fashion conscious lady. A 1878 column in fashion periodical Moniteur de la Mode confirms this for the 1870s when stating, “mourning attire, which has been successful this year … causes us to

envisage splendid black toilettes, and women are so fond of this dark frame for their beauty, such that black is now in great favor, not only for urban wear, but also for ball dresses”.84 Fashion periodical La Mode de Paris (1885) confirms that black continued to be in fashion during the subsequent decade when declaring that “the most

distinguished dress, the most becoming, the dress that any woman can wear in any circumstance is certainly a black dress”.85

The popularity of black is further evidenced by the frequency with which black dresses are depicted in the fashion plates of contemporary fashion journals during the nineteenth century’s third quarter - see figures 5 and 6 for typical examples of such plates - and by the fact that by the end of the 1860s Paris department stores had started to sell large numbers of affordable ready-to-wear black dresses and black cloth from which dresses could be made.86_{In 1866, for example, the Grands}

Magasins du Louvre department store alone is recorded as having offered in excess

of twenty different types of black silk for sale.87

Paradoxically, the mid-century shift in the perception of black as a fashionable color occurred at a time when, due to the invention of synthetic colorfast dyes, a wide array of bright new fabric colors was fast becoming available for women to choose from in addition to black.88 The cost of producing these new colors was significantly lower than that of their organic equivalents. As a result, the new synthetically

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( Aujourd’hui+il+se+porte+dans+toutes+les+cironstances,+sans+exceptions,+et+de+préférence+à+toute+autre+teinte”.( Emmeline(Raymond.(‘Modes’.(La+Mode+illustrée,+no.(1((January(4,(1874):(3(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(103.+(( 84_{(“Les+deuils+qui+se+sont+succédé+cette+année,+dans+les+maisons+souveraines+ont+fait+imaginer+de+splendides+} toilettes+noires,+et+les+femmes+se+sont+si+bien+trouvées+de+ce+sombre+encadrement+à+leur+beauté,+que+le+noir+est+ maintenant+en+grande+faveur,+non+seulement+pour+costumes+de+ville,+mais+même+pour+toilettes+de+bal”.( Moniteur+de+la+Mode,(no.(40((October(1878):(472W73(quoted(in(De(Young(2009:(106.( 85_{(Quoted(in(Steele(2004:(325.(} 86_{(De(Young(2009:(103,(104;(TétartWVittu(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(65.((} 87_{(De(Young(2009:(104.(} 88_{(Fukai(in(Fashion+in+Colors+2005:(9,(14,(16;(Perrot(1994:(101.(((((}

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produced colors were quickly integrated into the mass-produced garments that started to flood the Paris market from the 1860s onward.89

The so-called ‘Aniline-black’ synthetic dye, on the other hand, which was required to produce black fabric that would retain its color over time, remained expensive and would not be replaced by an affordable equivalent until well into the 1880s.90 Until such time, organic variants of black remained on offer alongside the more expensive synthetic kind, which was of a higher quality. According to Justine De Young, “a good black thus remained one of the most expensive cloth colors, and differences in shade permitted visible status distinctions”.91

The association of black with distinction and rank was of course not new to the nineteenth century. Throughout history black clothes have often indicated rich but unostentatious consumption.92 Consider, for example, the ruling classes of the city-state of Venice and the wealthy merchant regents of the Dutch Republic, who were frequently depicted wearing black.93

In keeping with history, during the latter part of the nineteenth century wearing a richly dyed black dress was seen on the one hand as an act of conspicuous

consumption signaling wealth and social standing, clearly differentiating its wearer from black-clad women of more modest means.94

On the other hand, wearing black - regardless of the quality of the fabric - also signaled good taste.95 This was by virtue of its perceived rejection of the oftentimes gaudy, synthetically dyed brightly colored fabrics that dominated much of the

mass-((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( 89_{(De(Young(2009:(105;(Fukai(in(Fashion+in+Colors+2005:(16.(} 90_{(De(Young(2009:(105.(} 91_{(De(Young(2009:(105.(} 92_{(Ribeiro(1999:(107.(Art(historian(John(Gage,(who(has(written(extensively(about(the(use(of(color(in(the(fine(arts(} also(observes(that,(in(many(western(cultures(“disdain(for(color(has(been(seen(as(a(mark(of(refinement(and( distinction”.(John(Gage.(‘Colour(and(Culture’(in(Colour.+Art+and+Science,(eds.(Trevor(Lamb(and(Janine(Bourriau.( (Cambridge:(Cambridge(University(Press,(1995):188.(Gage(quoted(in(Nicklas(2009:(104.(( 93_{(Harvey(1995:(119.(} 94_{(De(Young(2009:(105;(Steele(2004:(325.(} 95_{(De(Young(2009:(105.(}

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produced clothing.96_{Justine De Young asserts that these two functions in particular}

help explain why black dresses became and remained popular at a time when colored cloth was so readily available.97

At a more mundane level, black owed its popularity to the fact that it was a practical color. Black fabrics did not show dirt or soot as easily as lighter fabrics might, and were thus well suited for negotiating the bustling Paris streets. Black dresses were also considered versatile and timeless. They were thought to flatter every women’s complexion, showed off accessories well, and could be remade each season to meet the demands of Paris’s rapidly changing style trends.98

In brief, during the latter part of the nineteenth century black was considered suitable for virtually every occasion, and could be worn by all manner of woman. As a color it would always retain funereal and melancholy associations, especially during and immediately after the Paris Commune (1871) and Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) that left many women grieving for lost husbands and sons. Mourning was, however, no longer one of the few acceptable reasons for a woman to don black. Black had become fashionable, a color among many from which women might now choose and a color in which fashionable bourgeois women were frequently portrayed by artists of the time.

3.2 Black-Clad Woman in Domestic Interiors

Throughout history fashion has always formed a key element of portraiture and has been used to provide the viewer with information concerning a sitter’s status and function.99 What do the paintings of elegantly black-clad ladies situated in

well-appointed interiors that are the focus of this section tell us about the women depicted in them and what is the significance of their wearing black?

Three paintings have been chosen for this purpose: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s

Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann (1874; fig. 7), Alfred Stevens’ Porcelain Collector (1868; fig. 8); and Berthe Morisot’s Interior (1872; fig. 9).

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

96_{(De(Young(2009:(105.(} 97_{(De(Young(2009:(105.(}

98_{(TétartWVittu(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(65;(De(Young(2009:(299.(} 99_{(Tinterow(in(Impressionism,+Fashion+&+Modernity+2012:(18.(}

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Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann, 1874

The woman depicted in Renoir’s 1874 painting, Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges

Hartmann, is the wife of Georges Hartmann (1843-1900), a successful Paris music

publisher and opera librettist of minor acclaim. Mme Hartmann stands within a refined, stylish bourgeois interior befitting her husband’s status. A grand piano in the background serves to further establish the home’s credentials as haute bourgeoisie residence, but may also have been intended as a reference to Georges Hartmann’s affiliation with music and the musical salons frequently hosted at his home.100

Mme Hartmann stands statuesquely in profile in her bountiful gown wielding an open fan.101 The painting’s ambitious scale (183 x 123 cm) and the sheer amount of, to all appearances, luxurious beaded black fabric comprising Mme Hartmann’s gown, are striking and command the viewer’s immediate and full attention.102 Just looking at the dress makes one wonder at the time, handiwork and cost that would have gone into making a garment made of such an abundance of ostensibly expensive black fabric.

The overall impression created by Renoir with this painting is one of a woman of impeccable taste, wealth and good standing. Should Renoir have excluded all background detail and chosen to depict only the dress, the sheer amount of black fabric comprising the dress, emphasis on detailing and the manner in which the fabric is rendered, would still have spoken of opulence and wealth. However, by choosing to depict his black-clad woman in a bourgeois interior, Renoir has removed any doubt as to the woman’s social standing.

The dress Mme Hartmann wears is recognizably up-to-date and fashionable. Comparison with a fashion plate by Jules David which appeared in the Journal des

dames et demoiselles in 1874 (fig.5) confirms this. Notably, the resemblance to

fashion plates extends further than superficial similarities between the dress depicted

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in Jules David’s fashion illustration and this specific gown. Renoir seems to have adopted certain general stylistic characteristics of fashion plates in his painting, save for the fact that Mme Hartmann establishes eye contact with the viewer, which would have been highly unusual for fashion plates of the time.103

In a manner reminiscent of fashion illustrations, the space of the canvas is dominated by the commanding silhouette of Mme Hartmann’s dress and Renoir has positioned her in such a way as to show off the single most defining modish aspect of the gown - the voluminous cascading flounces gathered in a bustle at the rear - to the utmost advantage.104 Mme Hartmann’s upright, static pose is also similar to the type of pose one would typically encounter in fashion illustrations.105 Renoir has

seemingly also adopted another characteristic of fashion plates: the diminutive head contrasting with the enlarged toilette.106

Although it cannot be established with certainty whether Renoir actively modeled his painting upon fashion plates, such as other artists including Cézanne are known to have done, its resemblance to such illustrations is significant.107_As

Justine De Young observes, “fashion plates are not only interesting insofar as they reveal the fashionability of a garment. Fashion plates produced for publications like

La Mode Illustrée and Le Moniteur de la Mode provide invaluable information about

bourgeois ideals of femininity and the shifting standards and expectations of the nineteenth-century woman”.108

In the absence of a photograph or other image of Madame Georges Hartmann with which Renoir’s Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann may be

compared, it is not possible to say whether the painting bears a faithful likeness to Mme Hartmann.109 Then again, Renoir’s painting renders this point somewhat moot.

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Although a named portrait, the focus of Renoir’s Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges

Hartmann is clearly not the woman’s face and likeness, but her dress. Consequently,

while not a portrait in the true sense of the word, Renoir’s work does qualify as a portrait, albeit of an unconventional kind. It is a portrait of a fashionable contemporary black dress.

That Renoir intended the dress to be the focal point of his painting is not a matter of speculation. Renoir came from a family of tailors and dressmakers and, as befitting a painter of modern life, was fascinated by fashion.110 Renoir considered black the “queen of all colors”, and would explore the theme of the black dress a number of times.111 In his Portrait of a Woman, Mme Georges Hartmann the dress was indeed considered so important, that the painting is sometimes referred to as La

dame noire.112

Alfred Stevens (1823-1906), Porcelain Collector, 1868

A dame noire also features in Alfred Stevens’ Porcelain Collector of 1868. Here, the woman’s interaction with the extremely luxurious Japanese themed interior in which she finds herself not only confirms her social status, but heightens the overall

impression of sophistication, status and wealth conveyed by the painting. At the time this painting was made there was a widespread enthusiasm for Japan. Everything Japanese was considered très chic, and was definitely not within the means of less-moneyed members of the population.113

Contrary to Renoir’s painting, Stevens’ work is modestly scaled (68.3 x 45.7 cm) and is executed with a smooth, polished, Vermeer-like surface, and

extraordinary eye for detail. The anonymous mannequin-like woman in the painting wears an understated yet obviously ‘high end’, probably haute couture, contemporary black day dress made out of what would appear to be silk or satin - at the time both

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Women in Black in French Painting 1860-1900. Engaging with Modernity through the Medium of Fashion.