Fashion Plate No. from Costumes Parisiens 1797 - 1831

Pierre de La Mesangere created this print, Fashion Plate No. from Costumes Parisiens, using color woodcut. Notice how the artist frames a world for us using a muted palette interrupted by bands of vermillion defining the architecture of the interior, this accentuating the figure of a woman. She is adorned in a kimono featuring the motif of a crane. The grid in the background provides a structure that contains the open space. The choice to depict what seems to be a personal, interior space—using the grid as a grounding mechanism—may invite the viewer to consider the semiotics of private life and cultural presentation during this era. The woman's clothing, objects, and serene gaze may symbolize elements of grace, tradition, and domesticity. The artist used line, form, and color as signifiers of cultural values which continue to engage us today. Such prints act as a form of visual rhetoric, inviting us to consider and reconsider the construction of meaning within art.