Audio Episode 03: Galleries des modes et costumes Francais

Speakers: Muyon Zhou, Intern, Iman Khakoo, Intern, Rose Sheehan, Intern, Stephen J. Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian

Muyon Zhou: All the women in France imitate the queen, all the women in Europe imitate the women in France. In the last decade of the 18th century, a taste for coiffure trickled down from the last sovereign of France, Marie Antoinette, into the entire European society. It gave rise to the birth of Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Français, dessinés d'après nature. The hidden gem in the Frick Rare Book Cage, published between 1778 and 1787 in Paris, by Esnault et Rapilly. The selection is said to be the most beautiful collection in existence on the fashion of the 18th century.

Iman Khakoo: In this series, the opening plate to the fifth set dedicated to coiffure marks the artistic height of 18th century hairstyle illustration that the Gallerie reaches. The exquisite plate showcases four hairstyles from between 1776 and 1778, with the names of the hairstyles inscribed beside the figures. At first sight, four young women in half length portraits, immediately stun the viewers with their extravagant hair, which blow up the rectangular quadrants that they each occupy. Their carefully cured golden hair soars up in the air and expands beyond the width of their shoulder. The hair is further topped by even bigger accessories, bejeweled with strings of pearl beads, adorned by lace ruffles and ribbons. And garnished with ostrich feathers and flowers and echoing colors. As the collection’s title "dessinés d'après nature" or "drawn after nature," proudly proclaims, these women with their rosy complexions framed by explosions of fashionable styling, are the definition of beauty in the Parisian everyday life.

Iman Khakoo: But there is more to their beauty. With a second look, you will start to see how these women are all caught in the middle of some kind of action. Two of them are contemplating pieces of writing. One is reading a message reflected in a mirror on a heart pierced through by an arrow. And one is as if caught in a trance. These women are intelligent individuals. Their bodies are elegantly tilted as if mirroring their neighbors’ posture from left to right, while the similarity in their hairstyles connects their figures diagonally and ties the upper and lower section together. You will find that what makes these women so irresistible is their collective charm. The plate provides an image of fashion, not as an individual idolatry, but as a social ideal.

Muyon Zhou: This is the Frick Art Reference Library's, A Peek into the Past. Episode Three. Ruffles, Rouge and Pre-revolutionary France. (silence). The last decade of 18th century France, witnessed the birth and the climax of the coiffure industry in the Western world. While the French ladies spend hours and hours in their twilight cabinets to get their hairstyle in order for different locations throughout the day, the hairdressers were also desperate to establish their emerging coiffure business, not only as a field separated from the wig making and the barbershops, but also as a new genre of what they called liberal arts. Coiffure academies were created by renowned hairdressers for the nobles. Numerous hairstyle treatises in place were also made for these academies and hairstyles salons and circulated both domestically and abroad. In May 1777, the journal of Parisian fashion, [inaudible] was the first to feature a separated hairstyle section. In the same year, these hairstyles were published again, by the bookseller Valade, as a semi-periodical in Paris, titled Manuel des toilettes.

Muyon Zhou: This publication was particularly lucrative among the petite bourgeoisie, as they regarded the style as a visible way for them to keep up with the aristocrats. It was in this flourishing market for Parisian coiffure publication that the Gallerie des Modes et Costumes Francaise came to be. The publisher of Gallerie des Modes, Jacques Esnauts and Michel Rapilly were originally two print merchants with no connection to the bookselling, publishing world. However, they followed Valade’s Manuel des toilette, which proved the commercial success of the encyclopedic print series of Parisian coiffure. In the introduction to the bound version of Gallerie des Modes, the publisher's motivation behind the print is explained as an attempt to fix people's curiosity toward the revolution that the French coiffure experience when the Gallerie was set up. The Gallerie des Modes was announced as a fashion place dedicated to coiffure for both genders in April 1778. And it soon as started to circulate and in sets, cahiers, of six on a regular basis.

Muyon Zhou: However, from the seventh set and on, as the publishers saw an opening in the public interest in French clothing, the Gallerie's focus changed from depicting coiffure to the entire outfit in full length. It was through this clothing place that the Gallerie des Modes became the most known, as it inspired the first fashion magazine by modern definition, the Cabinet des Modes in 1785. In later sets of the Gallerie des Modes specialized coiffure sessions still came back sporadically in response to the remaining market need. Nevertheless, hairstyles were never again the publishers main interest. Despite the publisher's shift in the tension the change that Gallerie des Modes brought to the representation of coiffure fashion is nothing less than revolutionary. In prior coiffure print series, the models were only considered as agents of their hairstyles. Only two or three standard faces in either stiff profiles or the frontal or reverse positions are shown.

Muyon Zhou: In contrast, the Gallerie de Modes defied such absolute dominance of coiffure over individuals, by highlighting the naturalness in the model's action. The Gallerie des Modes took its high standard of figurative painting from the Monuments du Costume Physique et Sociale prints, designed by the renowned art illustrator Moreau Le Jeune. Absorbing from this figurative standard, we simplify detail and background, many Academy students, instead of commercial engravers were elicited to design and engrave the Gallerie des Modes. Most of the graphic figure reflects an aesthetic of portraiture sitting. From time to time, their postures are even direct quotations of small sections cut off from the scenes that the Le Monuments du Costume presents. The figures encompass different ages. There is facial expression variety. Their vibrant gaze flow all over the page. From such vividness, you can get a clear sense of an individual identity coming through the coiffure of, each model. Or sometimes, even imagining a scene or a story in the background.

Muyon Zhou: Nevertheless, this indication of a potential female narrative contradicted societal expectations of women. Social norms had a very limited acceptance toward women's direct participation in society, especially their engagement with politics. The Salon painters willingly depicted French woman as passive figures, such as happy mothers, dutiful wives and obedient daughters. Meanwhile, caricatures attacked politically prominent woman, Queen Marie Antoinette stood out as the most well-known target. And ridiculed the political, economic, and cultural power of women by emphasizing their sexuality. In particular, the coiffure was constantly used as a nitpicking excuse to accuse French women of their socio-political insensitivity.

Rose Sheehan: However, coiffures also resolve this conflict between the French woman's limited social engagement and a simultaneous wish to assert a social presence. Let's look again at this first plate to the fifth set, dedicated to coiffure, or plate number E25. Along the two crossing diagonals, the four hairstyles are divided into two groups. These hairstyles imply two ways in which women asserted a social narrative in defense of their private interest in coiffures. In this plate, the coiffure correspond with French warfare in the existing social hierarchy, in public occasions.

Rose Sheehan: The upper left and the lower right quadrants, introduce two hairstyles that made a dangerous reference to English hats. In the upper left, the chapeau anglaise or the English hat, is a wide straw hat, which tilts forward with a striped cloth tied into a ribbon on top. The hat is decorated with flowers and a pink ribbon skirting the cloth. A light scarf ties under the hat. In the lower right, the bonnet Anglo America, or the English American bonnet, is made of a softer striped fabric divided into tears by lace ruffles, a red sash, pearls and a string of flowers from bottom to top. The excess of flowers and pearls is gathered into a small bouquet, finished at the back with a drape of the cloth.

Rose Sheehan: This knowledge of English fashion in England and North America mostly came from French contact with the English through Wars. These English style hats date to immediately after France's defeat in the Seven Years War and at the dawn of the 1778 Anglo French War. In the Tableau de Paris, the writer, Mercier, advised French woman to adopt the English hat by adorning it with pearls, diamonds and feathers, while still keeping it constantly the English hat, by maintaining its reasonable proportion. Compared to Mercier's conservative approach, French woman took a rather radical form of cultural appropriation. They had only elaborated the decorations into a courtly French standard, but also expanded the size of the hat and the bonnet from their English prototype. According to social convention at that time, the bigger the hat was, the higher the wearer was in the social hierarchy. Thus, the change in size actually made a stronger statement that articulated the dominance of France over its English enemies. A 1785 advertisement even referred to the English-inspired hats directly as "military trophies." As a result, the French one managed to vent a patriotic enthusiasm through domesticating the English style.

Rose Sheehan: It must be noted here, that such patriotic sentiment might not be truly sincere, as it worked too conveniently with the French woman's increasingly extravagant taste in coiffure. Still, these English-inspired hairstyles provide some kind of defense against the criticism of the French woman, as only having a private interest in the ostentatious aspect of fashion. In effect, these coiffures help their wearers to exert a presence as women standing with their nation. In the upper right and the lower left, the pouf a la puce or the pouf in the puce color, in the bonnet au chapeau a la galante or the bonnet with an amorous hat, show a certain competence that must be examined under the existing social hierarchy. In this section, the plate shows smaller and softer hair pieces that only cover the upper part of the hair. The pouf a la puce has a cotton creep adorning the hair. Its bottom is traced by a pink ribbon, tied into sections by strings of pearls.

Rose Sheehan: Another string of pearls drapes below the ribbon and flowers and ostrich feathers are added on top. The bonnet with an amorous hat is a soft bonnet and striped cloth with a little decorative hat pinched in the front to the left. The bottom is edged by a ribbon. While the little straw hat is decorated with flowers in ostrich feathers. Additionally, there's a triangular fichu and a pink ribbon draping behind the bonnet. The bonnet with an amorous hat, challenges the established socio-political connotation of hat styles. Historically the hat and the bonnet in this coiffure, had two contradictory meanings in the political context. The hat connoted war while the bonnet suggested peace. After the death of Charles the 12th, the Swedish aristocracy was divided into two oppositional factions named as the hat party and the bonnet party. Here, as the bonnet with an amorous hat, combined the two oppositional types of hat styles to create a visual panorama. Its ability to arouse a visual sensation among the public, should also be attributed to the deviance it entails in violating an established division of social values.

Rose Sheehan: The coiffures can also acknowledge and participate in a game of social hierarchy. For instance, in the pouf a la puce, Marie Antoinette style was imitated by the common woman in an attempt to elevate her social status by appearance. The basic pouf style was created for Marie Antoinette by your hairdresser, Leonard. This particular a la puce color of dark reddish brown, was directly named after comment that Louis the 16th had on Marie Antoinette, as documented in Edmond Texier’s Tableau de Paris.

Iman Khakoo: In one summer day, Marie Antoinette presented herself to Louis the 16th in a taffeta dress of a dark color. "It's the peace color," said the King. All at once, all the ladies of the court wanted to have taffeta and peace.

Rose Sheehan: Together, these women present themselves to the public as equipped with the knowledge and competence to make cultural distinctions. Not only were they aware of the behavior and style of the higher social class, but they also expressed a wish to participate in such social order by emulating those in the higher position.

Muyon Zhou: Nevertheless, while coiffure could be a useful tool to shape women's public image, making them appear more prestigious and powerful than they really are. Such an approach was always prone to criticism. The main criticism at that time was that the French woman only imitated the outward appearance, but not their inner quality of fine ladies. Commenting on the woman's imitation of Mademoiselle Contin’s hairstyle, a contemporary journal said,

Iman Khakoo: "Most of our ladies have adopted these hairstyles, persuading themselves that they would look as attractive as Mademoiselle Contin. But beware, the most modest and decent tone is needed with these hairstyles."

Rose Sheehan: The Gallerie de Modes responds to this criticism by introducing props to the coiffure figures. In a closer look, we'll find that the letter that the English hat woman holds is most likely a love letter. The script that the bonnet with an amorous hat person presents sings, "Everyone paints love. Everything is love" from Charles-Simon Favart’s comic opera, The Nymphs of Diana. The injured heart shown by the Anglo American bonnet lady is inscribed with the cliché of love: "I chase my heart." With these props, the figures are presented as truly capable of being the most ingenious, the most touching, the most prudent, the least pretentious and the least effected from inside to out. At the same time, however, the props unavoidably restricted the woman to comply with the social virtue of feminine love and obedience. They weaken the values that the hairstyles attempt to champion. Instead, question, how assertive and active these women could truly be.

Muyon Zhou: Additionally, it is more problematic to reconsider the availability of these statements of coiffure to the majority of French women. The Gallerie des Modes seems progressive at first to present the coiffure figure, mostly in bourgeois clothing instead of courtly outfits. It extended the measurement of fashion beyond the 2% of nobles. Nevertheless, we should not forget that the bourgeois also compose a minor population among the common French people. For the majority of French women from the middle class and lower class, while there was still expected to wear the lavish coiffure in public, their social presence was a financial burden. According to the fashion historian, Caroline Weber, in order to keep up with the queen style, 1.5 million unmarried demoiselles were squandering their dowries. For the poor woman the cost of following the style meant the string attached offers of generous lover and to lose their virtue in the process.

Muyon Zhou: And opera actress documented in the Tableau de Paris further complained that as the expectation of lavishness grew with time, she could not afford the coiffure that she was required to do on-stage. Consequently, women, not only squandered their fortune, but also sacrificed their virtues. All for the sake of emulating the fashion. The extreme polarization in society make these potential coiffure statements still a privileged vocabulary, only enjoyable for the established bourgeois. Instead, when the fanciful coiffure was put into practice, people of lower class were never a part of the fashionistas consideration. As Dr. Stephen Bury, Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian at the Frick Art Reference Library commented.

Stephen Bury: The plates have shown extremes, whereas three-quarters of the country is starving. These people are going out in these strange coiffered hairstyles and these dresses that nobody would have been able to afford.

Muyon Zhou: Such starvation was literal. As flour was commonly adopted by the bourgeoisie as hair powder to obtain the fashionable light hair color. As Mercier passionately testified in Tableau de Paris..

Iman Khakoo: "The powder that 200,000 individuals whiten their hair with, is taken from the food of the poor. That this substance, the nutritious part, extracted from the dirty weed, passes fruitlessly over the neck of so many idlers."

Muyon Zhou: Additionally, French societies discriminatory treatment of people from different classes exacerbated this polarization. For instance, while the opera was a major occasion that the coiffure was created for, a restriction on female theater hairstyle, was imposed in 1778 by Devismes, the Director of the Opera at that time. It was intended to put an end to quarrels in the theater. As men complained that the tall coiffure that women wore blocked their view during performances. The Devismes regulation prohibited woman with coiffure over a certain height, from entering the theater. However, the effectiveness of this regulation hardly went beyond restricting the actresses and courtisans for these woman of low social class. Instead of elevating their social status, the coiffure became a further distinction that separated them from the ladies and bourgeoisies in the higher positions. Such division of classes continued to intensify until the end of French Revolution, when the executioner Sanson brutally cut Marie Antoinette's hair and placed it in his pocket. (silence).

Muyon Zhou: These coiffure plates in Gallerie des Modes, may not perfectly reconcile, an independent female narrative of women active within French society with a social expectation for females to act in merely private roles. Their place were still subjected to the limitations imposed by the norms and class problems in the pre-revolution society. Still, this print series continue to attract a high collecting interest. Today, we could find them in different collections through various copies, simply from their publisher, Esnaut et Rapilly. There was another bound version in two volumes of these fashion plates. The two volumes were produced in 1779 and 1780, with introductory text, cover images and a general rights disclaimer, added to the plates. They were made more for a taste of 18th century collectors and the interests of the philosophes that unified collection could address. Pirated version could also be found in other fashion plate collections, such as Basset’s Suite d’habillements. [inaudible]

Muyon Zhou: Reproduction of the original plates was also made between 1911 and 1914 by Paul Cornu and Emile Levy after many of the original plates were destroyed during the French Revolution. The original plates, from Galerie de Modes, has been rare since the beginning, as the publisher did not use the subscription system when these plates were first circulated in sets. Today, thanks to the gift from the Library of Paul and Melinda Sullivan in 2017, the Frick Art Reference Library houses more than 300 of these color fashion and hairstyle plates that might have been originally collected at the time of their circulation. It makes one of the most comprehensive collection, also unbound version of this print series, in the world. These fashion plates provide valuable information to enhance our knowledge and understanding of fashion's role in the pre-revolutionary France. As well as how hairstyle contributed to the relationship between the private self and the public society.

Muyon Zhou: If you take a stroll through the paintings exhibited in the Frick Collection’s galleries, you can also find some of these hairstyles or their earlier prototypes, such as in Boucher, A Lady on her day bed, Fragonard's Progress of love, and Gainsborough The Mall in St. James Park. Then revisit to the Frick Rare Book Cage, you'll be able to have a private moment with this masterpiece of French fashion prints and to personally experience this splendor and frustration in the last days of the old regime.