In which in the art historian rambles on about critical theory…
Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there.
So, I had nothing short of an epiphany yesterday morning as to my thesis topic. (Could explain why I was feeling splurgy at BevMo and walked out with an $80 bottle of St. George absinthe, now that I think about it…) In a nut shell, I want to examine the fashioning of a proto-feminist “uniform” in late 18th century France and England in the guise of the chemise à la reine. The real crux of the argument will hinge on the self portraits of women artists such as Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffmann, Marie-Victoire Lemoine, and Marguerite Gérard (to name a few), all of whom painted themselves (and one another) in the chemise à la reine. Obviously applying straight-out feminist theory to a group of women for whom “feminism” was a totally alien concept is fraught with issues… But the earliest roots of the feminist movement began to take in this part of the 18th century, so it’s not too big of a stretch, either.
Anyway, I won’t bore you all with critical theory wankery. I just had to share! And if you’re interested in perusing some images of women wearing the chemise à la reine, Blastmilk has a great collection of portraits from the last two decades of the 18th century.