['Journal des Dames et des Modes: the Fashion Illustrators', 'Journal des Dames et des Modes: Fashion News'] by Charles Martin

['Journal des Dames et des Modes: the Fashion Illustrators', 'Journal des Dames et des Modes: Fashion News'] 1913

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print, watercolor

portrait

art-nouveau

print

pastel colours

figuration

watercolor

watercolour illustration

watercolor

Dimensions: height 174 mm, width 107 mm

This fashion plate, "Journal des Dames et des Modes," was made by Charles Martin, sometime in the early 20th century. It's got this person in a smart blue suit standing out against a dark background, like they're stepping out into the night. I can almost feel the artist, Martin, deciding where to place each color. The pink railing against the green shrubs, and that pop of pink lining in the coat… It must have been fun, figuring out how to make it all snap together. I wonder what he was thinking about as he made these decisions? Did he ever think that it might end up in the Rijksmuseum? There’s something about the graphic, almost blocky, use of color here that reminds me of other artists working at this time, playing with flatness and pattern. Artists are always bouncing ideas off of each other, across time and space. It’s like a big, ongoing conversation. Painting is embodied expression, and that means it’s messy, uncertain, and open to whatever we might bring to it.

Comments

rijksmuseum over 1 year ago

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['The Journal des Dames was inspired by the eponymous fashion magazine from the previous century and, like the earlier publication, referred to its illustrations as Costumes Parisiens. These Costumes Parisiens (184 illustrations in total) were drawn in a new, flat, decorative manner by George Barbier, Jan van Brock, Victor Lhuer and other Parisian artists, each with a signature style. Every issue came with two or three separate plates. These showed a wide variety of fashionable apparel, from elegant evening attire to outdoor outfits. A brief caption provides the name of the garment and the material from which it was made, but never the name of a fashion house.', 'The Journal de Dames et des Modes was marketed towards the affluent, sophisticated elite. The text consisted of literary contributions and articles on various topics written by leading Parisian literati. The fashion commentaries discussed the full spectrum of new trends, such as ‘strolling bareheaded by motorcar,’ matching the colour of one’s dress to that of one’s automobile, the impracticality of small umbrellas, the wearing of sky-blue and grass-green wigs, and the vogue among women for large flat hats or for the small toques adorned with feathers that projected from their foreheads like antennae.']