Man met tweekantige steek, oorring en wandelstok 1848

Jules-Jacques Veyrassat made this print of a man with a bicorne hat, earring, and walking stick at an unknown date. It’s an image that speaks volumes about social identity in 19th-century France. The man’s clothing, from his jaunty hat to his carefully affected gaiters, announces him as belonging to a certain class, one that had the leisure time to stroll in public gardens. But it also suggests something of the culture of the period, in which it was important to perform your social role in a very visible way. Here, clothing and accessories become signs that could be read and interpreted by other members of society. To learn more, one might consult fashion plates of the period, social histories of Paris, and even literary sources such as novels and etiquette manuals, all of which can reveal how identity was negotiated through clothing.