A Monumental 19th-century Achievement
Excerpt from the book 'Auguste Racinet's Le Costume historique'.
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The executive committee included the manager of the Gobelins, Darcel, the scholar Bonnafé, Régnier, stage-director at the Comédie-Française, and the painters Lechevallier, Chevignard, and Racinet. This was no small enterprise. No less than 225 owners lent items for the exhibition, and an impressive number of garments, textiles, and pictures went on show in order "to create as complete as possible a sequence of historical documents of the sumptuary arts and to provide manufacturers with numerous elements for study and comparison". Even today, one is struck by the historical importance of the Louvre tapestries and pictures lent for the show and distributed through the ten large halls. They hung above cases filled with a host of objects provided by famous collectors such as Spitzer, Richard Wallace, the Ephrussi cousins, and Alphonse, Edmond, and Gustave de Rothschild. The textile samples from the Dupont-Auberville collection, the shoes lent by Jacques Jacquemart, the oriental furniture sent by Albert Goupil and the manuscripts and book-bindings from the Firmin-Didot collection were particularly admired. Nor was the pedagogical side of things neglected. The Ministère de l'Instruction publique had sent prints of seals and memorial stones made by the Director of Archives. Also exhibited were the patterns of the classical costumes used by Heuzey in his course on Greek costume at the École des Beaux-Arts. Historical monuments were represented in the form of chromolithographic reproductions of fresco, and the theatre by the drawings made "on the basis of authentic and historical documents drawn from his collection" by the stage-designer Lacoste for the costumes of two plays presented at the théâtre du Châtelet: Déluge and Théodoros et Ismaïla. And finally a library was created featuring all recent works published on the subject, and decorated with tapestries and "artist's proofs" of Jules.
All this underlines how Racinet and Firmin-Didot's work was the perfect follow-up to this exhibition, making available the knowledge contributed by the bringing together of the many complementary "documents" constituted by the exhibits. But though the Union centrale had demonstrated the existence of a strong interest in every aspect of costume, its founders differed widely in their perspectives. This became clear in April 1875, when the Union centrale established its library and museum in the place des Vosges. Both of these institutions were open to workers leaving their factories and studios of an evening, and admission was free. Certain of the collectors and administrators of the Union had had in mind a quite different and more elitist goal, that of the creation of a museum of decorative arts. The result was the founding in 1877 of a parallel organization under the instigation of the Marquis de Chennevières: the Société du Musée des Arts décoratifs. The two associations finally united in 1879 to form the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs, which ultimately became the Musée des Arts décoratifs located in the pavillon de Marsan at the Louvre. This transformation of the Société into a veritable museum primarily answered the purposes of rich collectors - potential donors to the new museum - and the many famous painters of the time who sold their "costume" paintings worldwide.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
The executive committee included the manager of the Gobelins, Darcel, the scholar Bonnafé, Régnier, stage-director at the Comédie-Française, and the painters Lechevallier, Chevignard, and Racinet. This was no small enterprise. No less than 225 owners lent items for the exhibition, and an impressive number of garments, textiles, and pictures went on show in order "to create as complete as possible a sequence of historical documents of the sumptuary arts and to provide manufacturers with numerous elements for study and comparison". Even today, one is struck by the historical importance of the Louvre tapestries and pictures lent for the show and distributed through the ten large halls. They hung above cases filled with a host of objects provided by famous collectors such as Spitzer, Richard Wallace, the Ephrussi cousins, and Alphonse, Edmond, and Gustave de Rothschild. The textile samples from the Dupont-Auberville collection, the shoes lent by Jacques Jacquemart, the oriental furniture sent by Albert Goupil and the manuscripts and book-bindings from the Firmin-Didot collection were particularly admired. Nor was the pedagogical side of things neglected. The Ministère de l'Instruction publique had sent prints of seals and memorial stones made by the Director of Archives. Also exhibited were the patterns of the classical costumes used by Heuzey in his course on Greek costume at the École des Beaux-Arts. Historical monuments were represented in the form of chromolithographic reproductions of fresco, and the theatre by the drawings made "on the basis of authentic and historical documents drawn from his collection" by the stage-designer Lacoste for the costumes of two plays presented at the théâtre du Châtelet: Déluge and Théodoros et Ismaïla. And finally a library was created featuring all recent works published on the subject, and decorated with tapestries and "artist's proofs" of Jules.
All this underlines how Racinet and Firmin-Didot's work was the perfect follow-up to this exhibition, making available the knowledge contributed by the bringing together of the many complementary "documents" constituted by the exhibits. But though the Union centrale had demonstrated the existence of a strong interest in every aspect of costume, its founders differed widely in their perspectives. This became clear in April 1875, when the Union centrale established its library and museum in the place des Vosges. Both of these institutions were open to workers leaving their factories and studios of an evening, and admission was free. Certain of the collectors and administrators of the Union had had in mind a quite different and more elitist goal, that of the creation of a museum of decorative arts. The result was the founding in 1877 of a parallel organization under the instigation of the Marquis de Chennevières: the Société du Musée des Arts décoratifs. The two associations finally united in 1879 to form the Union centrale des Arts décoratifs, which ultimately became the Musée des Arts décoratifs located in the pavillon de Marsan at the Louvre. This transformation of the Société into a veritable museum primarily answered the purposes of rich collectors - potential donors to the new museum - and the many famous painters of the time who sold their "costume" paintings worldwide.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Auguste Racinet, The Complete Costume History
Hardcover, 29 x 44 cm (11.4 x 17.3 in.), 636 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
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