I have an opinion here that this looks remarkably
German to Himself... Granted Swedish would have
also looked "German" ca 1780. Most of northern
Europe was looking German-ish, when it wasn't
looking French-ish, so why not both together.
(The hair-do looks like it's well on the way to
Marie-Antoinette-ism, eh?)
And Himself (SCA herald background) also says the
silver doodad on the center gentleman's left
torso looks to him like a "George", something
definitely English, and an order restricted to
the King or Duke level. Himself opines that it
looks to him like the lady with the whats-it
might be at least a Duchess, maybe higher (&
Queen is about all that's higher than Duchess)
and the three others, ladies-in-waiting in some
sort of matching livery.
OH!! OK, not British, although they were
strongly German-flavored around this time, George
III, Hanovers, etc.
There is a specific attribution for the painting,
if you dig deep enough: P. Hilleström; A
Conversation at Drottningholm; 1779.
So I went looking for Hillestrom, and found this
http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4nov/art1118.html
He's definitely a Swede, but much influenced by
german and french artists. He started as a
tapestry-weaver, but was always interested in
graphic arts and ended as a painter. He did do a
LOT of Swedish folk costume work, but IMHO think
the court-life ones don't overlap couture-wise.
Someone said something about court fashions often
being fossilized, that could account for some of
the older elements... And the article above also
says Hillestrom was "Sweden's first painter of
historical subjects", so that MIGHT explain the
old-fashioned elements?
So, if the grand lady is Louisa Ulrika, Queen of
Sweden, she's the sister of Frederick of Prussia
-- German influence. The young man might be her
son, Gustav III.
chimene
I believe that's the Swedish national costume or court dress... Argh,
I can't recall where I heard about it, but it may have been Bjarne
Drew's site. Basically the ladies are all in 18thc versions of
Renaissance gowns, and the gents are all in black piped with red...
except for some people who are in black with blue, or red with blue,
or blue and white.
This is my lack of bookmarks speaking. :\ I believe this was
instituted by the monarch at the time.
-Laura
On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:00 AM, <h-costume-requ...@indra.com> wrote:
Message: 8
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:40:36 EST
From: annbw...@aol.com
To: h-cost...@indra.com
Subject: Re: [h-cost] What is this woman making?
Message-ID: <4e3b.5a6615e8.38aab...@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
And that most of the ladies seem to wearing almost a uniform--all the
dresses look just alike.
Ann Wass
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