Gallery of Fashion Possibly 1798 - 1799

Curator: Isn't it captivating? We are looking at a print titled "Gallery of Fashion," likely created around 1798 or 1799. Its creator is unknown, and it is now housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. What strikes you immediately? Editor: It whispers "austerity," yet there is a lingering floral ornamentation which complicates it. The figure has a classical silhouette—very Neoclassical. I wonder what was the printing process and who produced it. Curator: Absolutely. It employs drawing, printmaking and watercolor, melding refinement and reproducibility, wouldn’t you say? The woman's garb reflects a time of transformation—the demise of elaborate court styles for simplicity of line and form. Think French Revolution vibes meeting commercial appetite! Editor: You are right. We tend to think of this period, thanks to art history's predilection for painting, but what’s intriguing is that it allows a focus on printing trades. How were such images consumed and traded at the time? Let’s also reflect on gender and work in such production! Curator: Intriguing avenues indeed! The watercolor adds soft color and personal touch that mass print sometimes misses. A touch of romanticism and of an interior life, to embellish a form of commodity. I bet people collected such images, and maybe they represented social identity, dreams of status. Editor: Absolutely. By analyzing the materiality, we can also appreciate it as something beyond a fleeting moment of pretty fashion, isn’t it? A testimony to industry, gendered labor, modes of disseminating aesthetics to different strata. It gives this drawing such significance in my mind! Curator: Yes. Perhaps art gives insight when things are about to transform—that intersection where one social order fades and the future emerges, even if unclearly! Editor: You are right. Well, I can’t help but consider what materials it took, whose work went into this—let’s consider its value through such production…