Evening dress 1898 - 1908

Henriette Favre made this evening dress, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a shimmering expanse of black sequins and lace. When I look at this dress, I imagine the painstaking work that went into it. Each sequin, each stitch, a deliberate mark-making gesture. The artist is building up the surface, bit by bit, to create a field of dark, twinkling light. Think about the hours, the decisions, the adjustments that were made. I love the way the texture plays with light. It’s like a dark painting, but with a tactile, almost sculptural quality. The lace and ruffles around the collar and sleeves soften the overall effect, like a delicate underpainting peeking through. It reminds me of the way painters use glazing to build depth and luminosity in their work. Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and medium!