The restoration of this portrait of a woman, a 19th-century Elégante, allowed me to delve into the heart of women’s fashion in 1830 in France and England, from dresses with puffed sleeves to hairstyles with intriguing nicknames. By analyzing this romantic portrait, I wanted to share with you some of the sartorial delights of a surprising year.
A gleam on women’s fashion in 1830 through the eyes of an Elegant stranger
The restoration of this portrait of a woman, a 19th-century Elégante, allowed me to delve into the heart of women’s fashion in 1830 in France and England, from dresses with puffed sleeves to hairstyles with intriguing nicknames. By analyzing this romantic portrait, I wanted to share with you some of the sartorial delights of a surprising year.
The young woman’s gaze lost in the distance, pearls of humor in the corner of her eye, expresses an innocence filled with dreams, promise and hope. The rosy-cheeked Elegante, seemingly smiling to herself, reflects a romantic sweetness imbued with the mystery of the object of her attention and thoughts, as well as that of the secret of her identity.
Romantic portraiture in the 19th century
The 19th century was a period of many changes on the political, economic and social scene, and art was the messenger. Portraiture in particular became more democratic. The Industrial Revolution elevated the bourgeois class to the upper echelons of power, and the bourgeois liked to be portrayed in the same way as the aristocratic personalities of past centuries: statuaries, miniatures and oil paintings took pride of place to immortalize the new triumphant people.
Romanticism, which had been flooding literature in Germany and England since the end of the 18th century, found its way onto easels and really took hold in France from the 1820s, and more strongly from 1830 onwards. Feelings and passions permeated painting, and portraits reflected the personality of the individual. With a more individual and intimate scope, the style became purer, with the face as the focus of representation, reflecting the subject’s state of mind and concentrating all the painter’s attention to the detriment of pomp and decor.
Far from the shackles of classicism and the rationalism of ideal beauty, the Romantic portrait calls for psychological analysis of its subject, depicting the inner life of the character with its exalted feelings, dreams and mysteries. Artists were free to express their own passions and individuality through their work. The popularization of the art of portraiture made it a prestige that was no longer just reserved for the artist.
La mode femme en 1830
Costume: leg-of-button sleeves
This woman of the world, or “Élégante”, is dressed in an 1830s Romantic-style bodice with a curved, whalebone bodice in reddish-brown tones, known as the “puce color”. Long, puffed, elbow-length sleeves start at the shoulders with cartridge pleats at the armscye, and are probably tightly gathered at the cuffs, which are not visible here.
The fullness given to the shoulders accentuates the slim waistline defined by the corset and emphasized by a wide band of fabric adorned with a metal buckle, from which a skirt, also puffed and not shown here, should descend in a cone shape to the instep. The dress is topped at the neckline with a white lace “fraise” and a white bow tie with pink highlights.
A history of hairstyles: Girafomania
Romantic women’s costume in 1830 under Louis-Philippe 1er was more modest, with less body exposure and heavier ornamentation, and hairstyles often adorned with feathers, flowers or imposing hats.
Here, the hairstyle, highlighted by a fine braid above the forehead, is lifted high by a Spanish-style comb, probably made of tortoiseshell, and adorned on either side of the head with a curly hairpiece called a “macaron”. This trend, which began in the 1820s with the so-called “Apollo knot” chignon, took on a variety of forms and names over the next two decades or so.
Following the arrival in France in 1827 of the Zarafa giraffe presented to Charles X by the Pasha and Viceroy of Egypt, Méhémet-Ali, a “girafomania” took hold of the fashion scene, and various hairdressing, kitchen and other decorative accessories took on the effigy of the famous giraffe. For around three years, women sported a sophisticated, high-cut hairstyle known as “à la girafe”, consisting of a large hairpiece held at the top of the skull by a comb also known as “à la girafe”, another name for the “Spanish comb”. Depending on the source, this type of high bun hairstyle can also be described as “Chinese-style”.
Jewelry, an essential accessory
On her left ear, the young woman is adorned with a dangling earring, about four centimeters high, with a swan-neck setting and two black balls of different sizes, possibly made of onyx, a stone quite common in jewelry at the time.
QUELQUES EXEMPLES...
From Royalty...
Bronze medal from Commemorating the visit of Louis-Philippe, Marie-Amélie and their children to the Monnaie de Paris in 1830, with “Marie-Amélie Reine des Français” in the coat of arms (http://www.monnaiesdantan.com)
...to Bourgeoisie
«19th-century plate depicting an Elegant woman, circa 1829, in a print store» (www.lamesure.fr)
The Queen’s hairstyle and that of this unknown Elégante above are very similar to that of the young woman in our portrait: part of the hair is pulled back to the front of the face and divided into two macarons of curls on either side of the forehead, and the rest of the hair is raised high and vertical on the top of the skull and held back with a “Spanish” or “giraffe” comb.
From Fashion magazines...
View from the front and back, hair with two “butterfly” bows, held high by a large tortoiseshell comb, with curly hair falling back on either side of the forehead, similar to our portrait.
The World of Fashion, and Continental Feuilletons, Volume 3, 1830, pages 176-177, estampe, détail (https://books.google.fr) : « La dernière mode londonienne et parisienne d’août 1830 ».
Des magazines de Mode...
View from the front and back, hair with two “butterfly” bows, held high by a large tortoiseshell comb, with curly hair falling back on either side of the forehead, similar to our portrait.
...to great women writers.
Iconographic Sources
▪ Gérard Jo, Bruxelles, La Mode : 1830-1920, 1978
▪ Olivier Lebleu, Les avatars de Zarafa : première girafe de France : chronique d’une girofomania, Paris, 2006
▪ Frank Van Wilder, Signatures & monogrammes d’artistes des XIXe et XXe siècles, Paris, 1998
▪ Encyclopædia Universalis en ligne
▪ http://www.lamesure.org/article-estampes-a-la-mode-92861027.html
▪ http://lecostumeatraverslessiecles.chez-alice.fr
▪ http://parismuseescollections.paris.fr
▪ The World of Fashion, and Continental Feuilletons, Volume 3, 1830, livre numérisé (https://books.google.fr)
▪ La Mode : revue des modes, galerie de mœurs, album des salons, Paris 02/07/1831, livre numérisé
(http://gallica.bnf.fr)
▪ « Mode. [XIXe siècle]. 1830 », Collection iconographique Maciet, Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, livre
numérisé (http://artsdecoratifs.e-sezhame.fr)