Addiction, Fascination, & Henri Boutet's Femmes

I here by declare myself quite mad with delight even though I am addicted.  Yes, I need a 12 step program for my history addiction that has spilled over on to Pinterest.  Downloading images, ebooks, and other fun and exciting historical finds loaded my hard drive, but through Pinterest I can save all the magic in one location.  The problem is this fascination with the 18th and 19th centuries along with my penchant for all things Tudor eats up time, if I'm not careful.

Just this morning I became so caught up in one of my favorite topics, the street cries of vendors, that I pinned 27 images from the British Museum.  The strawberry vendor crying out "Ripe strawberries" was one of my favorites.  The small elongated baskets filled with strawberries would make such a charming image. It looks to me like she's carrying her lunch on  top of her head.  

Moving along...let's finish up Henri Boutet's Les Modes Feminines du XIX Siecle from the Regency period.   The following images are from Boutet's rendition of fashion from 1811 to 1820. Do you see a sort of Edwardian slant to the lovely ladies?

 

Boutet created 100 images in all.  I've selected just the ones that would fall into the Regency time period.  Regency fashion is my absolute favorite.  The simple forms of empire waists and smooth skirts with out all the hoops, bell-shapes, and bustles of other times catches my eye.  Although the designs are simplistic the details are often fetching, exquisite, and fine. 

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery did not have all the images, but you can find a complete book, Les Modes Feminine du XIX siecle on the Haithi Trust Digital Library.  The original is from the University of California.

Just a reminder:  All the links are also on the Research & Resources page, too.

 

Henri Boutet & His Ladies of Paris

Last week I discovered the world of Henri Boutet, a French artist.  Born in Saint Hermine March 21, 1851, he became a renown as le petit maitre au corset or the master of the corset.  A nickname given to him because of his penchant for painting the ladies of Paris, from charming shop keepers to the sophisticated femme élégante.

Boutet's work embodies the genre "la parisienne"  using etching, drypoint, and engraving.

The illustration above is part of a book,  Autourd'Elles,  that Henri Boutet published in 1899.  The book showcases women going about their days with titles such as Lunch, Flowers, the Earring, and Sleep. 

 
 He limited his early editions to twenty until he discovered the "eau-fort synthetique" technique, which simulated the more expensive ways of printing for less money.  Now he could market to a wider audience that appreciated his talents.  Besides wandering the streets, cafes, and public places of Paris searching for subjects to capture, Boutet illustrated for magazines, almanacs, and even restaurant menus.  A search will turn up a veritable bevy of wonderful artwork.    

In 1902 the now successful illustrator created a two volume book chronicling 19th Century Parisienne fashion.  He used dry point etching and hand colored the plates creating a soft watercolor look.  His attention to detail displays his fondness for his feminine subjects.  The book, Les Modes Feminines du XIX siecle, is a dreamy drift into the fashion of days gone by.  He limited the original collection of 100 fashions to just 600.   

I hope you enjoy Henri Boutet's Paris ladies of the early 19th century all from Les  Modes Feminines du XIX Siecle. 

    

 

Henri Boutet, considered an 'artist reporter' of La Belle Epoque, captured the essence of feminine through his Paris ladies simply going about life. He died in 1919 leaving behind a library of images for future generations to take delight in.   You can find 105 images from Les Modes Feminines du XIX Siecle on The New York Public Library Digital Gallery site.

I decided to stick to the illustrations of the early 19th century and the next ten images will be in the next post.  Please feel free to Pin or download the images.  I believe them to be in the Public Domain.

Celebrating 200 Years of Pride & Prejudice

Greetings and Happy New Year! 

Time just flitted away like a bird on wing and 2013 arrived all fresh and new. With the new year comes a wonderful anniversary of a well-loved classic... Pride and Prejudice. 

  A watercolor believed to be of Jane Austen painted by her sister Cassandra. 

 How does one honor Jane Austen's grand achievement?   In my most humble opinion the best way to celebrate the classic is to not just reread the book, but take the entire month to savor it, take notes, and ponder every aspect of the book from the rich dialog to the English scenery.  Perhaps research the times and tribulations of 1813 and discover as much as I can about Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Austen began writing First Impressions, the original title for Pride and Prejudice in 1797.  The book was finally published in January of 1813, exactly 200 years ago this month.  A second printing came about in October.  The copyright was purchased by Richard Bentley in 1833 and the tome has never been out of print since then.  An amazing 20 million copies of the book have been purchased.

So what was going on in the world in 1813, the year Pride and Prejudice was published.  Let's take a look at Ackermann's Repository and find out what appeared in the January 1813 issue. 

Napoleon was certainly on the minds of the English writer who wrote the column Retrospect of Politics in the January 1813 issue.  His description of Napoleon Bonaparte... "one of the greatest monsters of the human race." 

 In a more genteel article an illustration of
a Cottage Ornee along with the floor plan reminds me of pining for a particular house or room in a modern home magazine. 

   








And of course there was the lovely Regency
fashion that many of us in the 21st century
are still enamored with.

"A robe pelisse of bright morone velvet, formed quite plain, simply meeting in front, with rounded collar; trimmed entirely round with spotted ermine..."

There were patterns for making needlework, embroidery, and lace, opinions, and fun observances of love, courting, and friendship.

You'd find poetry mostly about admiration of the fair sex, longing, passion, and love.

The market prices of such items as coffee, sugar, and corn could be found along with the stock prices.

Want to know what the weather was on January 1, 1813?  It's there in the Meteorlogical Journal.  The mean temperature was 35.5 degrees on a cloudy day with a southerly wind. (To find the temperature on a given day search in issues two months forward from the date...January meteorological information is found in the March 1813 issue)

It's wonderful to be able to view this slice of life in the time of Jane Austen.  It's a tangible connection and it helps to understand her books just a bit more.    

How will you celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice?  Read the book?  Watch the enchanting renditions of the book through movies and television?  Or will you follow her footsteps on a literary holiday?  Please share your ideas of how best to celebrate Jane's most loved book, Pride and Prejudice.

  

 

Greetings,

It has been nearly a year since I've penned a post; shame on me.  Life does tend to get in the way, but for a bit I was spreading myself too thin and did not have the luxury of time to keep up the blog, work on my romance book, which includes lots of research, and do all the things that I must. One chilly, rain-filled morning this fall I decided to give it another go. 

Inspired by Ackermann's Respository, my blog is changing.  With a little imagination and the Adobe Photoshop workhorse, Elements 9, some CSS styles and HTML tweaking, I gave the appearance a personal twist.  There's more to the cover though.  I'll be posting tidbits of history as I research for my book and I'm planning to add links and resources that will help other historical romance writers. I don't know about you, but I would love to have everything in one neat and tidy virtual file cabinet. 

It all began with Regency attire and home decor descriptions.  Striving to write as accurate as possible descriptions led me to Ackermann's Repository, an English monthly periodical published between 1809 and 1829.  There's loads of information including fashion, landscape, and interior decorating plates along with a plethora of articles, some of which I'm planning to post about in the future.  

 

The fashion descriptions are wonderful.  Enjoy the snippets that describes the gowns pictured above:

Plate 18: Promenade Sea-beach Costume

A Grecian frock of fine French cambric or jaconoet  muslin, with corresponding border at feet in shaded purple embroidery: Roman back and front of the same.  Full long sleeves with a turned up cuff of lace; fastened with a bronze stud, set in gold. Read the entire description here. 

Plate 17: A Mourning Dress

Our plate will be found to represent a lady and her infant in slight mourning habits: the former composed of black gossamer net, or imperial guaze worn over a white satin slip.  A demi-traine. A round frock front, and short French sleeves, each edged with a rich vandyke lace. Curious for more?  You can find this description on the same page as the above link, but here it is again.  

 
So here I am changing it up by sharing the history that I love so much, the beauty that dazzles and the adventure of writing my first romance novel and striving to get it published. My plan is to add Regency Reference Pages, a Glossary, and more. I hope you'll find a comfortable sofa to lounge upon, settle in for a visit and glean bits of history from the eras that I love most: The Regency Period and the Tudor Years of England.