Ornament is the leading magazine celebrating wearable art. Explore jewelry, fashion, beads; contemporary, ancient and ethnographic.
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IN THE CONSERVATORY by Albert Bartholomé (French, 18481928); 233 x 142.5 centimeters, 1881. Collection: Musée d'Orsay. 36 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012 SUMMER DRESS WORN BY MADAME BARTHOLOMÉ IN THE PAINTING IN THE CONSERVATORY of white cotton, 1880. Collection: Musée d'Orsay. as a memento. Similarly, the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired a swatch of the Marquise de Miramon's salmon-pink, ruffled velvet peignoir along with Tissot's portrait of her wearing the sumptuous garment; both are on display. When it opened in Paris in September 2012, the exhibition marked the first time fashion had infiltrated the venerable Musée d'Orsay, which houses works from France's national art collection dated 1848 to 1915. (French audiences saw a different—and slightly larger— selection of garments than those pictured in the catalog, as many were too fragile to travel overseas.) Putting threedimensional garments in a gallery designed for paintings "changes the space," Groom says. "When you bring in the reality like that, it gives life to the paintings. Mannequins stand still, but a Monet painting is all about movement. There's a dialogue that involves the viewer." Garments and accessories were displayed throughout the galleries, grouped into themes such as "reception" or "the outdoors." Similarly, department stores and fashion plates encouraged the fetishization of individual garments—hats, earrings, shoes, umbrellas—severing them from the body and grouping them by type. Eva Gonzalès's White Slippers and other paintings of shoes reflect this tendency. Edgar Degas did a series of paintings of milliners and their customers, which are dominated by extravagant hats; he is known to have accompanied Mary Cassatt on visits to her milliner. Unlike dresses, which could be made from kits and patterns, hats were truly unique. The exhibition includes several of Degas's millinery scenes—displayed alongside surviving hats—including his largest work on the subject, the Art Institute of Chicago's The Millinery Shop. Technical examinations have shown that, in spite of the spontaneous pose and technique, Degas labored over this canvas, reworking the composition several times and eventually transforming a picture of a customer into a picture of the milliner herself. His is not a titillating through-the-keyhole view, but the perspective of an appreciative customer. Degas applied the term "articles de Paris"—the phrase denoting the fashionable accessories sold in the capital's arcades and boutiques—to his small, commercial paintings. The milliner's shop, then, can be seen as analogous to the artist's studio, with finished works occupying the same space as unfinished ones, and the milliner serving as a