Rate the dress
comments 14

Rate the Dress: Gothic Georgian Dream Queen?

Archduchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia (1783–1801), née Grand Duchess of Russia in traditional Hungarian costume. 1795-1801

I quite enjoyed posting something that wasn’t a full dress for Rate the Dress, so I’ve kept with the theme of slightly offbeat Rate-the-Dress picks this week.

Instead of rating one garment, we’ll be rating a portrait where you really can’t see a huge amount of the wearer’s outfit.  But you can definitely see her vibe.

So, let’s rate the vibe.

(every time I use that word I think of The Castle.)

Last time: A 1873 cape in aniline purple with bobbles

Very, very VERY mixed reviews for the knitted cape.   Everyone could admire the skill, but you definitely weren’t on the same page about the aesthetic.

The Total: 5.9 out of 10

Oof.  However, I’m going to give your thoughts in the comment section 10/10.  So many amazing comments!  I particularly like “fun and at least in the same room as practical.” (what a great descriptor for the kind of clothes I like), but there were so many good observations.  You must go read them!

This time: Alexandra Pavlovna gets her gothic on

Today’s we’re looking at a portrait, and boy is it a mood:

Archduchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia (1783–1801), née Grand Duchess of Russia in traditional Hungarian costume. 1795-1801

Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia (1783–1801)  in traditional Hungarian costume. 1795-1801

Is that not the epitome of late 18th century Gothic drama?  The powdered curls!  The trailing black veil!  The pallor and smokey eye!  The laced bodice and pseudo-religious jewellery! (admittedly this time it’s simply her husband’s house).  My early 2000s university friends could only dream of this level of gothy-ness!

So what’s the story behind this glamorously gloomy painting?

Alex was both very lucky for an 18th century princess, in that by all accounts she had a lovely, happy childhood with adoring, supportive parents (and an overbearing grandmother who definitely said some things to and about her that a modern therapist would have some fun unpicking), and very unlucky, in that her marriage wasn’t quite as lovely.

After a disastrous (Alex was literally left waiting in a wedding dress for four hours while her brethrothed-to-be locked himself in his room) failed engagement to Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, (goodness, how different European history might have been had Sweden and Russia been allies in the late 18th and early 19th century…) the 15 year old Alex was finally (finally at least according to the standards of her grandmother, who, when Alex turned 11 declared “that summer a girl should be considered an adult.” and “It is time for the older one to get married.”  Eeesh), married to Archduke Joseph of Austria, younger brother of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Alex and Joseph actually got along fine, but Alex’s Russian Orthodox religion was unpopular at the Austrian court, and she did not get along with her sister in law.  Visitors to the court described her as always “serious and sad.”

Serious and sad is very much what we see in this portrait, foreshadowing Alex’s early death as a result of childbirth less than a year after the paintings completion.  There is one happy thing in the painting: Alex did love Hungary, and she’s shown here in Hungarian dress.

Come back the day after tomorrow for a post all about Hungarian dress from the 16th-19th centuries.

For now, here are two portraits from around the same era as Alex’s portrait that are a good example of what Alex’s whole dress might have looked like.

Portrait of Walburga Csáky (1762-1797), wife of József Andrássy (1762-1834), ca 1790

Portrait of Walburga Csáky (1762-1797), wife of József Andrássy (1762-1834), ca 1790

Portrait of Walburga Csáky (1762-1797) and her son Károly Andrássy (1792-1845), 1794

Portrait of Walburga Csáky (1762-1797) and her son Károly Andrássy (1792-1845), 1794

So, what do you think?  If you’d been going through a teenage goth phase at the end of the 18th century would this lewk have been everything you aspired to?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment.  Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting.  It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

As usual, nothing more complicated than a .5.  I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment.

14 Comments

  1. I love it! Not only is her look elegant and intriguing, but the entire feeling of the painting and the skill of the artist is so eye catching.
    10/10

  2. Johanna says

    Lovely portrait, and a lot of drama in the air. I definitely agree that it is every goth’s dream, and I could see an Elegant Gothic Lolita copying everything from it. As much as I love the beauty of it, it gives me a an underlying sence of pretentiousness, with some extra diamonds on, but I guess what else can you get when you mix the Romanov and Habsburg imperial courts.

    8/10

  3. ceci says

    Isn’t she lovely! Her life story, like so many of these ladies, is terribly sad.

    I love the vibe, in my totally uninformed way.

    Ceci

  4. nofixedstars says

    oooh, yes. i would absolutely have worn this in my gothy teens, minus the lace frills which would have been too much for me then, and frankly, i would wear it now in my still rather gothy middle age…the diamonds would be a lovely bonus.

    rating: 10/10

  5. The duchess’ stays are making the duchess stand particularly straight…her shoulder blades are likely almost touching. She does look troubled, not simply proud. It was likely a hard place to.be for her, in an Austrian court so far from home.

    The national dress is beautiful and I find the deeply pleated lace gorgeous. I might be a little off, but western European lace by this point was quite airy: this lace appears to have body and has less ground and more motifs, or so it seems.

    Her headdress is fascinating: am going to look it up.

    10 of 10

    • I’m a bit surprised at the traditional outfit being black and white only. It creates an impression of mourning, almost as if (just to go full Gothic melodrama for a moment) she is in prescient mourning for her own impending death – or that of her infant daughter.
      8/10

  6. Agnes says

    What a lovely painting! It’s tragic to think that the beautiful Alex would die so young. I wonder what everyone thought about this painting after she died. The subtle shades of black, white, and grey are just perfect, and I love the entire ensemble.

    10/10

  7. Anonymous says

    This is a very Gothic possibly Robe en Chemise? (From what I can see of it.) I would definitely wear it to a Georgian Halloween masquerade ball. I would rate it a

    7.5 out of 10

  8. Oh my goodness, this is so dramatic, and it’s hard to rate it just on her clothes, and not on that amazing expression on her face.

    10/10 for the whole look.

  9. Lynne says

    I think the look is perfect, and the story really fascinating and moving. The poor girl. I’m so glad she had some happy time in her childhood. She was very lovely, and she so suited all those fluffy ruffles and wispy veil and white fabric and diamonds galore.
    10 out of 10.

  10. Hayley says

    The dress is lovely, for what we can see of it. 8/10.

    But that face!!!! The artist has captured the face I pull when my patient makes a sexist comment like “my heart rate is only high because you are so pretty”. Erugh.
    10/10 for the expression.

    • If you felt a slight earthquake that was me cringing backwards so hard I made the earth tremble upon reading that. What is wrong with people!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.