Jeune Actrice, vêtu du Costume Espagnol (...) 1779

Martial Deny etched this image of a young actress in costume sometime in the late 1700s. It’s a print, meaning it was produced by pressing an inked plate onto paper – a process that, even then, could yield multiple identical impressions. What makes this image so interesting is the subject – fashionable dress. The figure is lavishly clothed in a style that the inscription tells us was adopted by the “petites Maitresses” of Paris, who were the trendsetters of their day. The details of that dress – the voluminous skirt, the elaborate trim, the feathered headdress – all speak to a culture of conspicuous consumption. Consider all the labor involved in producing such an elaborate textile, and then the social ambition that motivated its wearer. Deny’s print is not just a portrait; it is a small window onto a world of workshops, wealth, and the ceaseless pursuit of novelty.