18th century blog

Self portrait, 1785.

Gilbert Stuart was an American portrait painter who lived between 1755 and 1828.

Gilbert Stuart on Wikipedia.

Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art Series) at Amazon.

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1780.

17th and 18th-Century Costume in Detail by Avril Hart and Susan North contains big detail photos of garments from the Victoria and Albert Museum. There are no photos of the entire garments, instead there are detailed drawings. While these are great for understanding the construction, a small photo of the entire garment besides the drawings would have made it even better. We now only get to see a small part of the fabric and colours used. Most drawings show both front and back of the garment but a few show only one side, which I thought was a bit strange.

Each picture is accompanied by a short but informative text about the garment depicted. I wouldn’t have minded longer texts, but it’s a great book as is. This book is excellent for closeups on different trimmings and other decorations like embroidery, both for costumers and people who just like to look at pretty pictures.

Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, 1787.

I discovered American portrait painter Ralph Earl through the great blog 18th century American women which I’ve featured here earlier. I love his slightly naive paintings with great attention to costume and detail, and depicting one of my favourite fashion periods, the late 1780s and early 1790s.

Ralph Earl on Wikipedia.

A short Ralph Earl article at Bolton Community News.

An extensive biography of Ralph Earl at Worcester Art Museum.

Ralph Earl: The Face of the Young Republic on Amazon.

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Here’s a link to a Canadian society that reenacts the 1750s, the Société d’Histoire In Memoriam. The costumes are very accurate and beautiful and there are tons of wonderful photos on the site!

I got an e-mail about these 18th century dinners at the Kasteel d’Ursel, asking if I would write about them here, so I thought I’d pass along the information for those of you able to go to Belgium. I don’t understand the language on the site, but according to the e-mail I got it’s…

…a series of 18th-century dinners with a custom made theatre show…

Here’s a promotional video.

Mordet på Gustav III by Lars Ericson Wolke is a tiny little book about (obviously) the murder of Gustav III. It’s very entertainingly written and gives us the facts about both Gustav, his murderer and the whole conspiracy and events leading up to the murder. It’s a quick and interesting read and there are quite a lot of pictures as well.

It’s only available in Swedish as far as I know.

Pimpernel Clothing makes men’s clothing in 18th century styles, but meant for modern people. I think it’s a great idea. So far they only have waistcoats, but coats are on their way as well.

We set up Pimpernel Clothing to design and create clothing and accessories inspired by the beauty and quality of craftsmanship of period garments.

They also sell wonderful replicas of 18th century (and earlier) card decks.

Historical Sewing is a brand new 18th century fashion forum started by Madame Berg. I hope it takes off!

John Guilford Russell, 1790

Check out the Louvre databases! Not exactly tons of 18th century stuff and not very big pictures, but still a lot of great stuff.

Photos from the day I visited the Lyss till 1700-talet event at Skansen a couple of weeks ago. I wore my new outfit.

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Skönhetens mask by Carolina Brown is a book about the history of beauty ideals, with the main focus on the 18th century. It talks about both general ideals and specific details about such things as make-up and hair. There are not a lot of specific things about clothing though.

It’s not a big book, but what’s in it is very interesting. It has lots of pictures, although most of them are in black and white. I’m afraid I can’t find this book for sale anywhere but I found it at the library. It only exists in Swedish as far as I know.

A few years ago I attended a course by the same name at the Gotland University that used this book (and others) as literature.

A new swedish 18th century blog, My 18th century!

This is a photo Kathryn Parker took of me last summer in the Echo temple in the Haga park.