Tag Archives: Edgar Degas

My mom and I headed over to Chicago for the day, for a long overdue peek at the Art Institute’s latest exhibition, Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity. The internationally celebrated exhibit explores the connection between art and fashion amidst the high-fashion realm of late 19th century Paris, captured by the Impressionist works of Renoir, Caillebotte, Monet, Degas and Seurat (amongst many others), as well as the leading fashion portraitists of the period. Although the exhibition is saturated with striking displays of fabrics, accessories and fashion plates, the star of the exhibit is most certainly the couplings of life-size figure paintings with the outfits which inspired them, STUNNING!

Albert Bartholomé, In the Conservatory, c. 1881, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Summer dress worn by Madame Bartholomé in the painting In the Conservatory, French, 1880, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

If you’re in the Chicago area, make sure to catch the fabulous exhibition, before its departure on September 29th! Stop by Undressed: The Fashion of Privacy as well, a beautiful counterpart to Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, displayed in the Jean and Steven Goldman Prints and Drawings Galleries in the Richard and Mary L. Gray Wing. I have such a weakness for small intimate works on paper, and this exhibit has some gems by Vallotton, Munch, Cassatt, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Edvard Munch, Boys Bathing, 1899, Color woodcut from two blocks (one sawn into two sections) on cream card

Félix Edouard Vallotton, Laziness, 1896, Woodcut printed in black on ivory wove paper

Mary Cassatt, Printed with Leroy, Woman Bathing, 1890-91, Color aquatint, with drypoint from three plates, on off-white laid paper