Some costumes are too beautiful to sit in a closet after being worn once. This channel gives me a chance to re-wear some of my favorite creations and tell you a little bit about the costumes, the context in which it was worn, and the design and history behind the garment.
I would love to be able to make clothes like that! I would wear it everywhere not having a care in the world of how others thought of it... but sadly I've only just started my sewing journey...
i LOVE it!!!!! i have a couple or three 18th century gowns...two one-piece, one two-piece...and i wear them contradancing, english country dancing, and (soon) ballroom dancing.
Sometimes I wish I would have been born when they dressed like this. Except it was probably ridiculously hot in summer. But I think those dresses they had were so pretty.
Jow exciting for you!!! They didn't happen to have the study on exhibit too, did they? Back in 2001 I saw a wonderful Sargeant retrospective at the Seattle Art Museum when I lived in Portland, & the study was on exhibit, along w/a photo of her, & I think a study of her head, as she was celebrated for the shape her head. I sat on a bench near it twice, admiring it for a while both times, & since then I know the whole story about the scandal that took place. She wasnt such a great persin, a social climber that escaped the ruins of wealth because of the Civil War, & her mom's wish she marry a wealthy, connected man. Of, course, neither was happy & both had affairs, which did happen, especially French men. Although he hoped that the Salon would love the painting, that strap caused him to have to move to London, on the suggestion of his friend, E.M. Forster, & he kept the painting for 30 years before selling it to the Met. The study doesn't have that pesky right strap. I saw the actual finished Madame X at the Met in 2012, & although I loved it, I think because I 'd already seen the study, it wasn't as impactful as I thought it would be. I loved all the other portraits he did that I got to see that day. One was of a striking couple (Mr. & Mrs. Phelps Stokes). The woman was a great-aunt of Edie Sedgwick's (as I found out when I Googled them). I was so taken by that portrait, & found a biography had been written about the couple. It's a great bio that I highly recommend. They were a very interesting, devoted couple who couldn't have kids, but got to raise a girl they adopted. They were progressive people who saw what horrible squalor the poor lived in in NYC, & with others they helped to change things for the better.
Another favorite is Dr. Pozzi at home. Is that part of the exhibit? I happened to be in LA for medical reasons, so I went to the Hammer Museum to see his stunning portrait. I'd studied it in art history. I also went to the Getty, which is big. I'd love to go again. And I'd love to go to Lacma. We are lucky here in Tampa Bay Metro to have a plethora of great museums. West Palm to Miami also has amazing museums, Art Basel, & Wynwoid Walls. Winter Park, near Orlando is great too! Please tell us more about your visit to the MFA! I got to go to the Isabella Stewart Gardner, which was gorgeous, but a time glitch prevented me from going to the MFA. On my list for the next time I go to Boston. Amazing & elegant city. So much wonderful history there!!! And Concord!
