“Grande Robe du Soir”
I can’t get enough of these fashion illustrations.
“Grande Robe du Soir” is a fashion illustration from 1913 by the French illustrator and designer, George Barbier. This ink and watercolor on paper piece displays a fashionable evening dress from the French designer, Paul Poiret. The dress features a high waist, loose fitting sleeves, and contrasting pieces. The fabric at the bottom is a print of gorgeous large flowers against a black background. A turban, golden bracelets, and large stone ring finish the ensemble.
This illustration was printed in the Journal des Dames et des Modes, a French fashion magazine published from 1912 to 1914, before the onset of the Great War. The magazine took its name from a publication of the same name that was printed between 1797 and 1839. Inspired by the culture in Paris at the time, the magazine featured high end fashion illustrations, poems, articles, and opinion pieces. Barbier was a favorite among the haute couture fashion world of Paris and illustrated many of their clothing advertisements. His illustrations served as visual marketing for clothing designers.
This illustration of “Grande Robe du Soir” was plate 69 of the 1913 publication and is a hand-colored etching. It is accompanied with the text, “Grande robe du soir, corsage de mousseline chair, tunique de soie brodée dans le goût de la ‘Compagnie des Indes'” (large evening dress, flesh-colored muslin bodice, embroidered silk tunic in the style of the ‘East India Company’).
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer who lived from 1879 to 1944. He was known as “Le Magnifique” and modernized fashion through the abandonment of the corset, redefining the silhouette of a woman. Additionally, he had a unique technique of draping rather than tailoring outfits. As seen in this piece here, Poiret was heavily influenced by Orientalism, an imitation by artists and writers in Europe and America of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.
Original 1913 etchings of “Grande Robe du Soir” are currently in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States and in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
For more on George Barbier, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
