All posts tagged: 1879

Jeanne Samary and her dress

Interestingly, while numerous paintings of the late 1870s and early 1880s show women in low cut, almost sleeveless natural form evening gowns, like the one worn by Jeanne Samary, and fashion plates also show this style of gown, very few examples these gowns have survived. Were they cut apart and modified for later styles? Did they become so soiled at balls that they were not worth saving? Did women tend to have only one evening gown, and a selection of reception dresses (the ones with low square necks, and 3/4 length sleeves) ? Is it because wedding dresses were reception dresses, not ballgowns, and wedding dresses represent a disproportionate amount of the extent historical garments? Whatever the reason, I can only find one extent ballgown for every 10 reception dresses, so here are the ones I can find. I’m infatuated with the orange/goldenrod colour of this dress, and the bodice is very similar to Jeanne’s dress in some ways. And the skirt, well, how can you not love metal embroideries of daisies!?! Looking at …

Jeanne Samary and the ballgown of 1878

Published by The Dreamstress

‘Jeanne Samary Week’ (like ‘Shark Week’, but with cuter teeth) was inspired by a question about Jeanne Samary’s dress in Renoir’s full length portrait of her: I recreated the dress, and a reader wanted to know about the original gown. Who made it? What did it look like? Did it actually exist? This is my interpretation: Clearly I don’t have Samary’s enviable figure, but in all other ways I’m happy with my dress as a recreation of what Samary’s dress might have been. So, what do we know about Samary’s actual dress? Well, for one, it probably existed. Renoir was known to paint dresses that did exist, and did belong to the models he knew. The same frocks are repeated in various paintings in numerous paintings by Renoir and other Impressionist artists. Samary, for example, is shown in the same dress in The Swing and dancing in the Bal du moulin de la Galette, and Renoir and Monet both painted Monet’s wife Camille in a blue robe/tea gown. And, as seen in Tuesday’s ‘Rate the …

Rate the Dress: Jeanne Samary by Bastien-Lepage

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week Norma Shearer as Juliet fared no better than most of our other glamorous actresses who wore historical interpretations. She was dubbed “mutton dressed up as sparkly lamb” and rated only a 3.2 out of 10. Ouch! I haven’t told you this yet, but this week is going to be all about Jeanne Samary, so our Rate the Dress is her portrait by Jules Bastien-Lepage, probably painted in 1879 The 21 year old Jeanne is shown relaxing on a cane chair, her brown heel clad feet sticking out from under her blue-grey skirt which contrasts with her dark blue jacket with white cuffs, the parasol of the paintings title resting jauntily over one shoulder. Here is the exciting thing: we also have a photograph of Jeanne in this outfit, so we can compare how Bastien-Lepage interpreted it: And a close up of her face: What do you think. Is Jeanne the picture of youthful relaxation and comfort, or has she been depicted as the typical actress: too casual, too tousled, and too approachable? In …