18th century blog

Anton von Maron was an Austrian portrait painter.

Three more paintings »

This is probably old news to most of you, but LACMA has a new image library where you can see high resolution images of many of their objects, including many 18th century clothes.

Lady Mary Fox, 1767.

Some paintings from Italian painter Pompeo Batoni.

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I’m very sorry I have neglected this blog for so long. I have been working on my bachelor’s thesis in History and have been too stressed out to focus on anything else, but now I’m back!

First something I’m sure you’ve already heard about elsewhere, but check out Colonial Williamsburg’s online exhibition Historic threads: Three centuries of clothing. There’s also a reproduction clothing exhibition coming soon called New Threads.

A while ago I posted about the winter ball at Château d’Ursel, and they just e-mailed me some photos from the event. Go here to see more.

Self portrait with wife, 1791.

Jens Juel was a Danish artist who painted many portraits of the Danish royal family.

Jens Juel on Wikipedia.

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Yesterday I went to Gustafs skål’s Twelfth night ball, and I had a wonderful time! I also met Isis, who had a fantastic foresty costume, and Madame Berg, who looked amazing, for the first time. I forgot to take any photos but my boyfriend took a few of my costume when I got back home. I wore the polonaise with a new but unfinished pelisse (the hood trim and armholes are missing). I was planning to make a matching muff as well but didn’t have time.

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One of my Christmas presents this year was 18th Century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh. I’ve wanted this book for a long time and it exceeded my expectations. I was expecting something informative but dull with black and white drawings but 18th Century Embroidery Techniques is a beautiful and entertaining book in full colour with many photos in addition to all the hand drawn diagrams. It explains many 18th century embroidery techniques along with a presentation of all the tools used. There’s also a glossary that was very useful to someone like me who’s completely new to embroidery.

There’s an interesting exhibition coming up at The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum in Colonial Williamsburg, Fashion Accessories from Head to Toe. Here’s what the museum website has to say:

This exhibition features costume accessories from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth century. Women and men enhanced their appearance with the addition of hats, purses, jewelry, shoes, and more. These objects kept pace with change in fashion and present a visually rich overview of the period.

There’s also a video presenting the exhibition.

I would love to go to Colonial Williamsburg some day and I hope I’ll get to go before this exhibition ends. It runs from January 29, 2011 through December 31, 2012.

I just discovered this American 18th century blog with lots of costuming, A Fashionable Frolick.

Mesdames les comtesses de Fitz-James et du Nolestin, 1771.

Louis Carrogis Carmontelle is another of my (many) favourite 18th century artists. He was a french artist who did tons of these aquarelle portraits, most of them very similar in composition and with very detailed fashions.

Louis Carrogis Carmontelle on Wikipedia.

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18th century notebook is a wonderful and very useful collection of links related to 18th century costume.

A couple of days ago I went to Kina slott (the Chinese pavilion at Drottningholm) to take some photos of my robe à la polonaise since I realised it unintentionally matches the colours of the palace exterior. My boyfriend Henrik was the photographer.

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