Merveilleuse: Chapeau de paille d’Italie, Par-dessus à la Chinoise
Designer Horace Vernet French
Engraver Georges Jacques Gatine French
Not on view
Hand-colored engraving with design for the costume of a Merveilleuse, part of the book "Incroyables et Merveilleuses," with 33 costume plates designed by Horace Vernet and engraved by Georges Jacques Gatine, published ca. 1815 in Paris. The costume in this plate consists of a pale pink straw bonnet with white ruffles framing the face and an extravagant bundle of large, white stylized lilies and green leaves, a white dress with lace borders and two horizontal puff strips, empire waist, short puff sleeves, under a "Chinese" pardessous (or overcoat), decorated with pink, stylized exotic flowers and with hanging pink tassels, and white flat shoes with three pink ribbon bows each. Long, white gloves cover the hands, which hold a rose vine from the garden in which the scene is set. A golden, oval-shaped brooch with a cameo decorates the center of the chest.
