Exhibition « Revealing the Feminine. Fashion and Appearances in the eighteenth Century »
About the event
Presented at the Cognacq-Jay Museum in collaboration with the Palais Galliera, the exhibition « Revealing the Feminine. Fashion and Appearances in the eighteenth Century » offers an immersion into the fascinating universe of femininities in the century of the Enlightenment.
Portraits, galant scenes, and historical textile pieces dialogue to explore the diversity of representations of femininity as they unfold in the staging of the eighteenth century. The exhibition highlights the rise of a French style whose elegance then seduces European courts and aristocracy, revealing a history of costume both rooted in material reality and nourished by the imaginary.
At the heart of this era, France imposes itself as the essential theater of refinement and prestige. Artists such as Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Jean-Marc Nattier, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, or Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun excel at translating the brilliance of fabrics as well as the depth of souls, offering their models an aura of grace and power.
The exhibition's path, which highlights these virtuosic works, is enriched by portraits marked by a new psychological dimension, where intimacy and naturalness take a central place, under the English influence. In parallel, the pastorals of François Boucher and the galant fêtes of Antoine Watteau shape an idealized and poetic femininity.
Finally, contemporary photographs by Steven Meisel, Esther Ségal, or Valérie Belin, as well as a Chanel creation by Karl Lagerfeld, suggest in counterpoint a reflection on the persistence of codes and the heritage of the eighteenth century in current fashion, between social requirement and the imaginary of beauty.
