L’Impressionnisme et la Mode

’The satin corset may be the Nude of our times’ Manet said. The major exhibition at the musée d’Orsay on the relations between Impressionism and fashion shows ’fashion addicts’ are not an invention of our century. Numerous specialised magazines such as Paris-Charmant or La toilette de paris and teh powerful big department stores show that fashion already generated high revenue in the last decade of the XIXth century, a period during which Parisian Haute Couture triumphed, Art could not remain unsensitive to this phenomenon. While Tissot continued in a style of meticulous realism, rendering materials in an extraordianry manner, Renoir, Degas and Berthe Morisot declared war to the classic portrait of the elegant woman standing. Their models struck more natural poses in a new environment and different light, while they reproduced a the fashion of their time. The permanent criss-cross between paintings and real objects such as dresses and shoes complement the demonstration.

• L’Impressionnisme et la Mode, Flammation/Musée d’Orsay, 2012, 320 p., €45.