18th century blog

Sofia Vladimirovna Panina, 1791.

I don’t know anything about Jean-Louis Voille except that he appears to be French and seems to have painted mainly Russians. His paintings are lovely though, and you can see more after the cut.

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Here’s another great database to check out. Joconde is a catalogue of French museum collections. Go to the advanced search and write 18e siècle in the “Période/Datation” box and you’ll get all the 18th century stuff. I found lots of great paintings, objects and clothes.

Une Collection Francaise is a blog containing “a collection of French miniature portraits owned by a French collector who wishes to share them with art lovers”, and most of them are 18th century. Click the picture of Lamballe to go there.

I posted earlier about the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 18th century European dress page, but you should check out their costume database as well.

Click the picture above to watch a podcast about this dress, created by Rose Bertin and probably worn by Marie Antoinette. The dress belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum but will apparently be exhibited at Versailles next year March 16 to June 14, as part of an exhibition about 17th and 18th century court dress. I’ll hopefully visit!

John Wilkes and his daughter, 1779.

German painter Johann Zoffany on Wikipedia.

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with one more painting.

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The website of the upcoming movie The Duchess is up with lots of photos and information. My favourite thing about it is that many of the costumes are presented with detailed photos and information, I also liked the “discover” section. I have mixed feelings about this movie but mostly I can’t wait to see it! Click the picture to go to the website.

Some photos of an outfit I wore one day for the 18th century weeks at Skansen.

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Sofia Magdalenas brudklänning i tidens smak by AnneMarie Dahlberg
This is a tiny little book sold at the Swedish museum Livrustkammaren. It’s about the wedding dress of Sofia Magdalena who later became queen of Sweden. It tells of the wedding and of the construction of the dress, and contains x-rays of the dress bodice. A few other dresses and objects are also shown. There are no actual descriptions on how to go about making the dress, but it’s still useful if you’re interested in making 18th century clothes. It’s an interesting little book with many pictures, and it’s very cheap. if you’re ever at Livrustkammaren I recommend picking it up.

Another Livrustkammaren tip is the pattern of Gustav III:s wedding suit also sold in the museum shop.

I just found these two “sister blogs”, Georgiana’s gossip guide to the 18th century, and Marie Antoinette’s gossip guide to the 18th century. Both very entertaining blogs with bits of 18th century information and lots of pictures, even some I hadn’t seen before. Check them out!

Click the picture to see photos taken by Lisotchka at the 2008 Vaux le Vicomte event.

Au Cour des Roses
I don’t know the language on this site (german?) so I’m not sure if this is a society or if they hold events or you can rent them for events or something else. It’s a gorgeous site anyway with tons of beautiful photos!

Edit: They both arrange events and you can hire them for events!

On Sweden’s national day, June 6, the royal castle in Stockholm, an 18th century castle, will have free admission and several special events. Some of the things I’m planning to see are a lecture about Gustav III, Gustav III:s museum of antiquities and a tour at Livrustkammaren. There is a program of the day in English here, at the website of the Swedish court.

Dangerous Liaisons
I love this movie. It’s based on a book published in 1782 and set about the same time, but (based on the fashions) the movie is set several decades earlier in the mid 1700s. I haven’t read the book, yet, but I’m planning to read it in the future and I’m guessing it’s good since it has inspired such a great movie. I’m also a fan of another film adaptation of the same book, Cruel Intentions.

The movie is set before my very favourite period fashion and style wise, but the costumes are absolutely amazing and the environments are incredibly lavish. The sets are very detailed, and we get to see many typical 18th century situations. The beginning where the main characters wake up and get ready is probably my favourite part of the entire movie. There are also some beautiful opera scenes that I wish they would have shown more of.

I noticed a few small anachronisms, like a portrait on the wall sporting a 1780s hairdo, and one of the operas appears to me to be set in the 1780s as well, but I certainly don’t mind since I love the 1780s :) All in all a great movie!

Lots of screenshots and some publicity stills after the cut.

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